


Three Triple-Changers and a Jet Plane

by JasonVoorhees



Series: You gotta talk about your feelings [2]
Category: The Transformers (Cartoon Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Generation One
Genre: Anxiety, Depression, Don't worry I don't write unhappy endings, I can't tag everyone there are too many, I gave Astrotrain PTSD, I'm sorry Astrotrain I love you, M/M, Rated Teen for Starscream's potty mouth, The Triple-Changer boys are going to spy, Undercover Missions, and Blitzwing's, and Sixshot's
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-01
Updated: 2019-11-01
Packaged: 2021-01-16 18:15:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 25,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21275570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JasonVoorhees/pseuds/JasonVoorhees
Summary: Galvatron is dead. The future is unclear. The Autobots ask Astrotrain, Blitzwing, and Octane to go on an undercover mission to the Decepticon base to see if anyone might be open to peace negotiations. Shenanigans ensue.





	Three Triple-Changers and a Jet Plane

Astrotrain had asked, five minutes ago, why Optimus Prime wanted an audience with three Decepticon triple-changer refugees. The answer he got from Blurr was so incomprehensible that he, Blitzwing, and Octane opted to remain silent as the blue Autobot led them to the debriefing room.

The door slid open and they entered—not only was Optimus Prime there, but Ultra Magnus, Jazz, Kup, and Arcee. Astrotrain wondered if he was being kicked out of Autobot City. He’d been _trying _to get along with all the bots here. It was difficult, some days, because some of them were _really annoying_—but it was better than working with Galvatron. And he got to stay with Blitzwing. So. It was worth it.

Blurr started talking as soon as they walked in. “Hi-Optimus-they-asked-me-what-was-up-but-I-knew-it-was-a-briefing-so-I-didn’t-want-to-say-and-actually-I-can’t-say-because-I-don’t-know-I-just-wanted-to-let-you-know-they-were-asking—”

“All right, thank you, Blurr,” said Optimus Prime. Blurr dashed out of the room to go who-knows-where. The Autobot leader had a deep, commanding voice that used to intimidate Astrotrain… but he was starting to find it reassuring. Having Optimus address him in a friendly tone certainly helped with that. “Please, sit down,” Optimus continued, gesturing to the table in the center of the room.

The Autobots sat down and the Decepticon refugees followed suit. Optimus waited until everyone was settled, then said, “Thank you for coming. We’ve intercepted some very interesting information from the Decepticon headquarters on Chaar.” A pause. “Galvatron is dead.”

Astrotrain’s insides felt like they were twisting into a ball of wire. Galvatron was _dead? _How? Who’d killed him? Did someone kill him? What a relief, though, to know he wouldn’t be hunting Astrotrain down to murder him for desertion.

“D-dead?” Blitzwing repeated, leaning forward. “Are… are you sure?”

Optimus nodded. “As far as our intel goes. We are fairly certain. Apparently, Scorponok has somehow assumed command of the Decepticon army.”

“_Scorponok?_” Octane said incredulously. “Are you sure?”

“Based on the information we have, that seems to be the case.”

“What about Cyclonus?” Blitzwing asked. “Or Soundwave?”

“Well… They’re still there,” Optimus said. “That’s not all. Starscream has rejoined as well.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Octane said.

“We don’t think so either,” Jazz spoke up. “But now we’re getting to the reason for this briefing.”

“And what is that?” Astrotrain said finally, cautiously.

“We’re tired of this war,” Optimus said, and when he said it, he did sound tired. “We’re hoping, that with Galvatron gone, and things… uncertain, we may have a chance to end it. But we need more intel. We need to know what’s going on there, and we need to know if the majority of the remaining Decepticons would be open to holding negotiations.”

“So we’re asking if you three would be willing to re-join the Decepticon army and investigate,” Ultra Magnus said.

The three triple-changers stared at Optimus for what seemed like forever.

“You want us,” Blitzwing said slowly, “to infiltrate the Decepticons and see who’s open to peace talks?”

“That’s the gist of it, yes. We’re not expecting you to try to sway anyone, or initiate anything. We just need to know if it’s feasible for us to do so.” Optimus held up a hand. “If you’re willing.”

“Octane and I got kicked out though,” Blitzwing protested.

“So did Starscream,” said Arcee. “It’s because Scorponok and the others let him back in that we think this will work.”

“That’s true,” Astrotrain agreed. “Starscream’s done way worse than we ever did.” He looked around the table. The Autobots all seemed genuine and hopeful, another thing that annoyed him but was nice at the same time. “What if we don’t want to?”

“Then you don’t have to,” Ultra Magnus said. “That’s why we’re asking you and not telling you.”

“It _would_ be extremely helpful,” Kup said. “You can get so much more intel with infiltration than you can by spying.”

“And we could get a solid idea of who to start with,” Jazz added.

“How long would the mission be?” Octane asked.

“Potentially, a few weeks,” was Ultra Magnus’ reply. Octane opened his mouth again and Ultra Magnus answered before he could ask: “You would keep radio silence the entire time unless you needed immediate extraction in the case of an emergency.”

“Ah. Hmm.” Octane crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair.

“I’m sure Sandstorm would understand,” Jazz said helpfully. Octane just chewed on his lip thoughtfully.

“Are you sure you want to entrust us with this?” Astrotrain asked carefully. “It seems like… a very important task.”

“You’re the best mechs for the job,” Optimus said. “Not just because you’re Decepticon refugees—obviously that’s a factor, since it makes it that much easier for you to rejoin—but from what I’ve seen, all three of you are reliable and capable soldiers. I believe you’d be able to carry this mission out successfully.”

“Well,” said Astrotrain uncertainly, “I’m a little rusty myself. I haven’t done much in the field since Galvatron took over. He said I was too stupid for anything but transportation.”

An awkward silence fell over the room. Astrotrain could feel heat creeping into his face, but before he could think of anything else to say, Optimus spoke up again.

“That was very… cruel of him to say,” Optimus said, concern clear in his voice. “We would greatly value your skills should you choose to participate in this mission. It’s no small task we would entrust you with—the first step towards possibly ending the war.”

“Do we—do you want us to decide now?” Blitzwing asked.

“By the end of the day, please,” was Optimus’ reply. “I know you may need time to consider it.”

It didn’t actually take long to consider. There were pros and cons, of course—the cons being having to live on Chaar again, with all the Decepticons, taking part in whatever it was Scorponok decided to do with his newfound troops. Safety wasn’t really an issue, because none of them considered themselves completely safe while the fighting was still going on. Octane was reluctant to be out of contact with the Autobots (read: Sandstorm) for the entire duration of the mission, but at the end they all agreed that the pro was a big one.

A step towards ending the war. The Autobots had tried, before, to approach Galvatron. Several times, because they were all so tired of the constant conflict, but Galvatron would have none of it. Now, with him gone, they needed to seize the opportunity as quickly as they could, and the three triple-changers wanted the war over just as badly as the Autobots.

They went back to Optimus Prime an hour later and told him they’d do it. He thanked them, profusely, then sent them to see Ultra Magnus, Jazz, and Arcee to hash out the details of the mission.

The plan seemed very simple on the surface. Astrotrain, Blitzwing, and Octane would go to Chaar at the beginning of the following week. They’d rejoin the Decepticons and gather as much information, as subtly as possible, about who might be willing to take steps to end the fighting. Three weeks after, the Autobots would create a distraction and the triple-changers would defect for the second time. The explanation they’d give for leaving would depend on the situation at Chaar. During the three weeks, the Autobots would be relying on communication interception and third-party sources to monitor what was going on as best they could. Astrotrain, Blitzwing, and Octane would each have one emergency homing device, only to be activated if absolutely necessary. 

The date of departure arrived, and the Autobots were double-checking everything. Astrotrain and Blitzwing waited while Perceptor fiddled with their emergency devices for the fifteenth time. Blurr was hovering next to him.

“I-know-he-already-checked-them-but-we-just-want-you-guys-to-be-safe-it’s-a-dangerous-mission-so-safety-is-important-you-can’t-be-too-careful-you-know-anything-could-happen-so-we-just-gotta-make-sure!” Blurr was saying, and it wasn’t really helping Astrotrain’s nerves.

“Thanks,” Blitzwing said to Blurr. “Why don’t you go explain that to Octane?”

“Okay!” Blurr ran over to where Octane and Sandstorm were standing, heads pressed together and talking softly, and interrupted them. Blitzwing snickered, bumping Astrotrain’s arm with his own.

Since he’d come back to earth, Astrotrain had noticed that Blitzwing was a little more touchy-feely than he used to be. He supposed that might have come from spending time with Autobots.

“All right!” Perceptor said. “These are about as flawless as I can get them.” He reluctantly handed over the emergency clips—they were extremely small, easy to hide inside a panel—and Blitzwing and Astrotrain wasted no time putting them on. Perceptor went over to join Blurr in interrupting Octane and Sandstorm’s conversation. Octane and Sandstorm had spent just about every waking second of the past week together, and Astrotrain was starting to wonder if Octane was really going to be able to focus on the mission. He smoothly transformed into his shuttle mode, and Blitzwing waved at Octane.

“Time to go!” he called. Octane turned reluctantly, was pulled back into a kiss by Sandstorm, and jogged over a minute later looking flushed.

“Blitzwing, Astrotrain, Octane.” Optimus Prime approached the three Decepticons and stopped by Astrotrain’s door. He was still kind of intimidating, just from the authoritative way he stood. “Thank you, again. I can’t stress how grateful we are that you are willing to do this. Good luck, and we’ll see you in three weeks.”

“Thanks, Optimus,” Octane said. “We’ll do our best.”

“Um, yeah, thanks,” Blitzwing said.

Astrotrain didn’t say anything. He would have nodded if he wasn’t a shuttle at the moment. There was something very surreal about getting an encouraging send-off from Optimus Prime himself. Blitzwing and Octane climbed on board and Astrotrain blasted off into the sky.

They didn’t say much on the way to Chaar. They’d talked about it enough in the past week, theorized and planned and speculated. Some of the Autobots they’d discussed it with—Ultra Magnus, Jazz, and Arcee—had warned them against making any plans based on speculation, even vague ones. “It’s dangerous to go in with any expectations,” Arcee had told them. “Play it by ear when you get there. Work only with the information you gather.”

The Decepticon base was larger than the last time they’d seen it. They knew this, based on what the Autobots had said. Galvatron had managed to build, if not a whole city, at least something the size of a decent ship. Astrotrain approached carefully, and as he was expecting, was met by patrols.

Scourge and the sweeps, to be exact, flying around in their ship forms. “Astrotrain?” Scourge said, not sounding particularly upset. “What are you doing here?”

“Not just me.” Astrotrain opened his door so Blitzwing and Octane could jump out and transform into their plane modes.

“Uh, hi,” said Blitzwing. “We heard that Galvatron… died.”

“Yes,” Scourge said. “Scorponok is leading.”

“We also heard that Starscream came back?” Octane added.

“He did,” Scourge said, but offered no further information.

Astrotrain decided to just go for it. “Well, we’d like to come back, too. Who do we ask?”

“Oh,” said Scourge. “Huh. I suppose we can go ask Cyclonus. Scorponok is working on something and he said not to disturb him.”

That implied that Cyclonus was still second-in-command. The triple-changers trailed behind Scourge as he led them down to the base and landed, transforming as he did so. They followed suit and stood there outside the entrance while Scourge called Cyclonus on the comm link. “Cyclonus, could you come outside the East doors, please?” A pause. “Yes. No.” Another pause. “It is somewhat important, yes. I don’t know where Soundwave is right now… No.” Scourge turned to the three with a strained smile. “He’ll be here in a moment.”

Ten minutes later, the doors slid open and Cyclonus walked out, unhurried. “What, Scourge,” he said, sounding more tired than Astrotrain had ever heard him.

“The triple-changers that defected,” Scourge said, gesturing at the trio. “They’d like to rejoin.”

Cyclonus stood there, gave the triple-changers a once-over, and sighed. “Fine,” he said, and walked right back inside the base.

Scourge stared after him for a moment before giving Astrotrain, Blitzwing, and Octane another forced smile. “You heard him. Go on in. Find one of the Constructicons. They can assign you a room.” He transformed back into ship mode and flew away.

Astrotrain, Blitzwing, and Octane exchanged glances. That seemed quite… lax. But they followed Scourge’s instructions and entered the base. Scourge hadn’t told them which way to go, and Cyclonus was nowhere to be seen, so they just kept walking through the halls until they found someone.

This someone happened to be one of the Predacons, Rampage. When he saw them he immediately drew his gun and fired.

“Hey!” Blitzwing squawked as the triple-changers dove out of the way. “What are you doing?”

“Traitors!” Rampage yelled, waving his gun around. “I’ll blast you into scrap!”

“Cyclonus let us in, you idiot!” Octane shouted. “We were told to find one of the Constructicons.”

Rampage stared at them and slowly lowered his gun, looking disappointed. “Oh.” He turned to leave.

“Wait! We don’t have comm links yet,” Astrotrain said. “Can you call one of them for us?”

“I _guess_,” Rampage said. He activated his own comm link and yelled, “One of the Constructicons needs to come down the level one! Somebody’s waiting.” There was a buzzing static of many voices all at once, which probably meant that Rampage had broadcasted to the whole base instead of calling whoever he needed directly. “I don’t know!” he yelled into the comm. “No, you shut up!” he stomped off down the hallway without updating the triple-changers on the situation.

After they’d stood in the hall for ten more minutes, Octane said, “Seems a little disorganized here.”

Blitzwing agreed. “But to be fair,” he said, “Some Decepticons are nearly impossible to organize.”

“Blitzwing?” Someone said, and they all turned to see Bonecrusher approaching. “Astrotrain? Octane? What are you doing here?”

“We’re rejoining the ranks!” Octane said. “Scourge told us to find one of you guys for a room assignment. That’s why Rampage called you.”

“He didn’t call me, he called everyone,” Bonecrusher said. “Scrapper just sent me.” He paused. “Come on, then.”

They walked quietly for a few minutes, Bonecrusher looking back over his shoulder at the triple-changers every ten seconds. Astrotrain wondered if maybe he didn’t quite believe them about rejoining. The Constructicon led them to an elevator and took them up to the third level. “Quarters are all located on this floor,” he said as they stepped off into the hallway.

Ramjet and Thrust were sitting on the floor in the hall playing some sort of game that involved round chips in piles. They had both glanced up when the elevator doors opened and immediately went back to their game.

“Can you move,” Bonecrusher said. “You’re blocking the hall.”

“No,” said Ramjet. “We got all our chips set up and if we move it we’ll have to start all over.”

“If I kick your chips you’ll have to start all over, too,” Bonecrusher replied, irritated.

“You don’t have to move it,” Astrotrain said quickly. “You two just stand up for a minute. We can go by without messing up your setup.”

“Oh,” Thrust said. “I didn’t think of that.”

The two seekers stood and waited as Bonecrusher, Astrotrain, Blitzwing, and Octane stepped carefully through. They plopped back down as soon as the group had passed and started playing again.

Bonecrusher led them to one of the rooms and typed a code in. It wasn’t a huge room; it had three recharge tables and not much else. “Here are your comm links,” Bonecrusher said, shoving three small communicators at the triple-changers. “Your room code is 876-334.”

“Thanks,” said Blitzwing. He and the others hooked the communicators on and waited for Bonecrusher to leave. He didn’t.

“Can I ask you a question?” he asked, shifting his weight back and forth.

“Shoot,” said Octane.

“You three… you were staying with the Autobots, right?”

Okay. They had kind of prepped for these questions. “Why did you come back” or “Did the Autobots kick you out”. The answers were supposed to be “Because Galvatron died” or “No, we left” with the unspoken assumption that no one would want to _stay _on Earth with the Autobots. So Octane said, “Yeah, we were.”

“What was it like?” Bonecrusher asked, his volume dropping slightly.

Once again Astrotrain, Blitzwing, and Octane were exchanging glances. Unhelpful glances, because they hadn’t anticipated that sort of question. But they’d been entrusted with this mission, so they were going to have to figure out how to improvise. This could be a good thing, but what if it was some kind of loyalty test?

Astrotrain decided to try deflecting it. “Why do you want to know?”

Bonecrusher shook his head almost imperceptibly and took a step backwards. “N-never mind. It’s not important. Forget I asked.” He paused, and Astrotrain was getting the distinct impression that he _didn’t_ want them to forget he asked, but Bonecrusher only added, “Welcome back,” and hurried away.

Astrotrain tapped the _close door _and the _lock door _buttons and turned to his companions. “So where do we start?”

“Maybe with Bonecrusher,” Blitzwing said. “I wonder why he asked that.”

“We need to stick to the plan,” Octane said. “Size everyone up before bringing up anything even remotely controversial.”

“He brought it up, but yeah, I suppose we have to do the infiltration part before the investigation part,” Blitzwing agreed. “Where to then?”

“We should go see what Scorponok wants us to do,” Astrotrain said reluctantly. “Since he’s apparently in charge.” Astrotrain could only hope he wouldn’t be the delegated transportation again.

“Okay,” said Octane. “Off we go.”

They exited the room and headed for the elevator. Thrust and Ramjet were still sitting in the hall, now joined by Dirge. The seekers looked up as they approached.

“Use the stairs,” Thrust said, pointing to the opposite end of the hall.

“Fine,” said Blitzwing. “We need to go see Scorponok though. Do you know where he is?”

“Probably in his throne room,” Dirge said, and Ramjet elbowed him sharply. “I mean, the main communications room… where he has his big chair set up.”

“And how do we get there?” Astrotrain asked.

“Ugh,” said Thrust. “Don’t you have a datapad with the map?”

“Uh… no? Bonecrusher only gave us comm links.”

“Oh. Well, here, take mine, then.” Thrust pulled out a datapad and tossed it at the triple-changers. Octane caught it, barely. “I’m not using it.”

“Ooo-kay then,” Octane said. He tapped on the datapad, Astrotrain and Blitzwing leaning over to see. It wasn’t even password-locked. They figured out the quickest way to the communications room (it was on the second level) and set off for the stairs.

They passed Swindle and Blast Off having a loud argument in the stairwell. The two Combaticons stopped yelling long enough to say, “Oh, hi,” then went right back at it.

They also saw Long Haul on the way, who said hello and stood there for a moment looking as if he wanted to say something else before running away. _Something_ was up with the Constructicons. They’d definitely have to look into that.

The communications room was large, two of the walls covered with screens and operating panels. Against one of the other walls was, indeed, a gigantic, hideous chair, which Scorponok was lounging in.

“What do you want?” Scorponok said when the three of them entered the room. He sat up a little. “Or do you have news from the Terrorcons?”

“We just wanted to know where we’ll be assigned,” Octane said. The triple-changers kept a good distance from Scorponok, in case he was as prone to fits of rage as Galvatron had been.

Scorponok frowned. “Assignments are sent through your datapads. Have you morons forgotten that already?”

“Well, we only have this one datapad, and it’s Thrust’s.” Octane brandished the device in question. “And we didn’t know that because we’ve only just got here.”

“New recruits?” Scorponok sounded annoyed. “Don’t bother me! Cyclonus is supposed to take care of orientation!”

“No problem!” Astrotrain said hurriedly, feeling a twinge of anxiety from the anger in Scorponok’s voice. “We’ll go talk to him then.” He spun on his heel and crashed right into Starscream coming into the room.

“Watch where you’re going!” Starscream screeched. He realized who’d crashed into him and said, “Oh, _Astrotrain_.” Starscream marched past him and noticed the other two. “Well, well, all the triple-changers are here. How _nice _of you to rejoin us.” Blitzwing shuffled over to stand beside Astrotrain and placed a hand on his arm.

“Hey, Starscream,” Octane said. He didn’t say anything else, probably because Scorponok was right there.

Starscream narrowed his optics at Octane, then sauntered up to Scorponok’s throne.

“Starscream,” said Scorponok, sounding pleased. “What’s the progress on my detonator?”

“It’s coming along beautifully, Lord Scorponok,” Starscream said in the most syrupy, insincere voice Astrotrain had ever heard. “Just as all of your ideas do. However, we do need some more materials. So with your permission, I’ll take Thrust, Ramjet, and Dirge out on one of the shuttles.”

“Of course,” Scorponok said with a wave of his hand. “You’re doing an excellent job, Starscream.” He started chuckling, and it was an _extremely_ annoying sound.

Starscream smirked. “Why thank you, Lord Scorponok. So are you.” He trotted towards the door, tapping on his datapad as his did so.

The datapad in Octane’s hands started beeping, and Starscream stopped short. “Is that Thrust’s?” he demanded. Octane nodded, and Starscream grabbed it out of his hands. “Give me that!” He continued on his way, muttering under his breath. “If he hands this thing off one more time I’m going to…”

“Starscream, wait.” Blitzwing jogged after the seeker, and Octane and Astrotrain hurried behind.

“_What?_”

“Uh… how are you doing?”

Starscream laughed. “Wonderful, now that Galvatron is gone. Why do you care?”

“Well, I didn’t like Galvatron either,” Blitzwing said. “And I haven’t actually seen you since you… came back from the dead. Thought I’d ask.”

“All right, you’ve asked. Now mind your own business.” Starscream made a shoo-ing motion with his hand.

“Can you tell us how to get to wherever Cyclonus is first?” Octane said. “We haven’t got a map; that’s why Thrust gave us his datapad.”

“Oh, for—” Starscream jabbed at his datapad, then shoved it in Octane’s face. It was displaying the map, with one blinking purple dot. “Cyclonus’ office is right there. Think you can manage that?”

“Yep, got it,” said Octane. “Thanks. Good luck with your detonator thing.”

“Oh, yes, my ‘detonator’. _Thank _you.” Starscream walked away cackling.

“He is definitely up to something,” Blitzwing said as they headed for Cyclonus’ office.

“When has Starscream ever _not_ been up to something?” Astrotrain said. “That’s a given. But he does seem to be fooling Scorponok.”

Octane shrugged, and the other two took it as probably not wanting to discuss sensitive topics in the hallway. They took a few more turns until they arrived at Cyclonus’ office, and opened the door.

Cyclonus was sitting at a desk, reading something. He barely glanced up when they entered. “Yes?”

“Scorponok said you do orientation…?” Astrotrain said hesitantly.

Cyclonus looked up again, and sighed. He opened a drawer in his desk, pulled out three datapads, and took his time fiddling with each of them. Finally he offered the devices to the group. “Here. You’re in the system. You can add your own alt-modes and weapons and that will determine your assignments. Maybe.”

“That’s it?” Blitzwing asked.

“Yes,” said Cyclonus, and went back to reading.

“So… we just wait for assignments? What should we do in the meantime?”

“I don’t care,” said Cyclonus, not looking up.

They left his office and decided to just wander around and try to gauge the atmosphere some more. They went to the mess hall to see what the energon supplies looked like and found the Predacons having a fight; the Stunticons were sitting around watching.

“Hi,” said Drag Strip. “When did you three come back?”

“Today,” Blitzwing said, watching Tantrum smash Rampage across the head with a table. “Why are they fighting?”

“Dunno,” said Dead End. “Somebody took somebody else’s energon or something, who knows. They just wanted an excuse.”

“Hm,” said Octane. “How are the energon supplies here?”

Motormaster shrugged. “Decent enough. Although Scorponok isn’t very good at looking for ways to make it. He just sends us off to steal it. The last batch we brought in has a really bad aftertaste.”

“So Scorponok is running things all right?” Astrotrain ventured.

“He thinks he is,” was Motormaster’s reply. “But nobody else wanted to do it, so…”

“I thought Cyclonus would have,” Blitzwing said.

Another shrug. “As you can see, he didn’t.”

Well, that was a start. Some Decepticons, at least, didn’t have any particular loyalty to Scorponok. Astrotrain looked around the mess hall, trying to see past the fight. They might as well eat while they were here.

Breakdown pointed across the room and said helpfully, “The energon dispensers are over there.”

The triple-changers skirted around the edge of the room to get to them. The energon dispensers were rationed, apparently, and they had to use access codes (they found these in their datapad profiles) to use them. Though considering how lax things seemed around here, it was almost a sure thing access codes were being stolen left and right. Maybe that’s what started the Predacons’ brawl.

The energon was pretty bad. It was a little sludgy, with a bitter, gravelly aftertaste. Going to the trouble to produce quality energon seemed like an important step in keeping your troops happy, but Scorponok probably didn’t care about that.

By the end of the day, not much had happened. No one had left the base except for Starscream and the coneheads, and no meetings or briefings had been called. They really weren’t sure what Scorponok was doing. They decided that tomorrow, they’d ask more of the Decepticons what the plan was with Galvatron gone. There had to be a plan, right?

They decided to skip talking to Cyclonus and find the third-in-command, Soundwave. Was he still third-in-command? They weren’t exactly sure where Starscream fell in the ranking. The datapads only gave the officers’ titles: Soundwave was (still) Communications Officer and Starscream was Chief Scientist. Not very helpful.

They found Soundwave not in the communications room, but on the fifth (and top) floor, working on something in the observation deck. Ravage was curled up on the floor near the door; he lifted his head when the triple-changers walked in but didn’t bother to get up. Soundwave was sitting at a console with Buzzsaw perched on his lap.

“Hi, Soundwave,” said Octane cheerfully.

Soundwave turned from the console and said, “Hello.”

“So,” said Blitzwing, jumping right in, “we were just wondering what Scorponok’s planning to do. You know, like, in general. Since we just rejoined and we’re kind of out of the loop.”

“Cyclonus didn’t really fill us in,” Astrotrain added.

Soundwave seemed to scrutinize the three of them for a minute (it was hard to tell with his face), then said, “Scorponok wants to destroy things.”

“Like the Autobots?” Octane asked. “Same as Galvatron?”

Soundwave shook his head. “Yes. And no. Scorponok wants to eradicate as many beings as possible.”

“Oh,” said Octane. “He’s taking his time with it, I guess?” Soundwave said nothing. “Just because, it doesn’t seem very busy around here.”

“I will inform Scorponok that you desire more duties,” was Soundwave’s reply.

“Uhh… thanks.”

“Is that all the information you require.”

“One other question,” Astrotrain said. “Who should we be directly reporting to? Cyclonus? If not Cyclonus, then no offense, would it be you or Starscream?”

“You may report to me,” Soundwave said after a moment’s consideration.

“All right. Thanks again,” Octane said. He, Astrotrain, and Blitzwing headed down out of the observatory. They passed by Rumble and Frenzy going the opposite way and waved. Frenzy flipped them off and the two cassetticons ran away laughing.

“The cassettes are just as bratty as ever,” Blitzwing observed. “Do you think we should try to go see what Starscream is up to?”

Before Astrotrain or Octane could reply, all three of their datapads started beeping. They pulled them out and unlocked them to see the same pop-up displayed on all three screens: NEW ASSIGNMENT: CLEAN ENTIRE MESS HALL.

“Are you kidding me?” Blitzwing squawked. “We shouldn’t have asked. Why would Scorponok even care if the mess hall is clean?”

Astrotrain threw a glance back at the observatory. “I don’t think that was Scorponok.” He was pretty sure Soundwave had heard what Blitzwing said about the cassettes.

“Oh dammit,” said Blitzwing.

Cleaning the mess hall took the rest of the day, partly because the other Decepticons kept going in and out and dirtying it up again. At one point Blitzwing tried to block the doorway off, but Sixshot came in and kicked the makeshift barricade clear across the room.

“What a bunch of bastards!” Blitzwing moaned when they were all back in their room that night. They’d stashed their datapads behind a loose panel in the hall, just in case anyone was using them to listen in. He climbed onto one of the recharge tables and lay there face-down. “Remind me why we’re bothering to see if they want peace.”

“Because we want peace,” Astrotrain said. He reached out and patted Blitzwing’s wings. Blitzwing just grunted.

Octane heaved a deep sigh. “I miss Sandstorm.”

“It’s only been two days,” Blitzwing said, voice muffled.

“I know, but I just want to talk to him…” Octane flopped onto his back on his own recharge table and stared at the ceiling.

Neither of them said anything else. Astrotrain laid on the remaining table, and it wasn’t long before they all fell into an exhausted sleep.

They had barely finished breakfast the next morning when their datapads beeped again. Blitzwing let out a string of curses.

Astrotrain opened his up to see what the assignment was. “This might actually be helpful,” he said. “We’re supposed to help the Constructicons build something.”

“By hand?” Octane whined. “None of our alt-modes are for building.”

“But we’ll get to talk to them,” Astrotrain said. “Come on.” He herded the other two out of the mess hall.

They met the Constructicons in one of the second level hangars. It was half filled with metal containers and huge pieces of things that looked like scaffolding. The Constructicons looked a lot happier than they had a couple of days ago; in fact they looked downright excited.

“Oh boy,” Hook was saying. “This looks like it’s going to be _huge._”

“It sure does,” Octane said, glaring at the pile of materials.

“It’s going to take _days,_” Mixmaster said gleefully.

The hangar doors opened and Soundwave came in carrying a small projector device. He set it down on the floor and switched it on. An extremely complicated set of blueprints materialized in the air, and the Constructicons immediately gathered around to see.

“The device must be built in fifty-three different parts,” Soundwave said, flicking through several projections, “for assembly at a different location.” The Constructicons nodded along, pointing to several things and making a few comments.

Astrotrain couldn’t make much sense of the blueprints, Octane was frowning like his processors were about to blow, and Blitzwing didn’t seem to be paying attention at all.

“Octane, Blitzwing, Astrotrain,” Soundwave said. “You will follow the Constructicons’ direction.”

“Fine with me,” Astrotrain said, staring at the mess of schematics floating in front of them. Soundwave left the room and the triple-changers were left in the care of six very enthusiastic Constructicons.

They set to work, not having much idea of what the end product was going to be. The Constructicons spent the first hour discussing the blueprints as they worked, occasionally deciding to do something in a different order, to have Astrotrain put these pieces over there instead of over there or whatever… but once they got a rhythm going he was impressed by how efficient they were.

They were all still acting a little odd around the triple-changers, though. Astrotrain had wanted to try talking to Bonecrusher again, but he’d been directed to help Scrapper. At the moment all he was doing was holding things in place so Scrapper could weld them, and the Constructicon was being very quiet.

“So how have things been going here?” Astrotrain asked as casually as possible.

“Fine,” Scrapper said noncommittally.

“Better without Galvatron?” Astrotrain pressed.

“Sure,” said Scrapper. He paused and lowered his blowtorch. “That’s why you three came back, isn’t it?”

“Yep.”

They stared at each other for a few seconds, then Scrapper picked up the blowtorch and went back to welding. So much for that.

They spent the rest of the day building and only completed nine of the components. Mixmaster was right, it was going to take days. Maybe an entire week if they kept up at this rate. Soundwave came back that evening to see how much they’d gotten done, and for some reason Starscream was with him.

The Constructicons dutifully reported their progress while Starscream examined the finished pieces.

“Very good,” he said when he was done. “Better than I expected with those three helping out.”

“Wow, thanks,” said Blitzwing.

“I don’t need your sass, Blitzwing,” Starscream said. “This project is not to be taken lightly.” He fixed Blitzwing with a deadly scowl. Blitzwing seemed unintimidated. “Whatever. You’re all dismissed.”

“Report back tomorrow morning,” Soundwave said as the Constructicons and triple-changers filed past him.

Great. So they were apparently assigned to this project until it was finished. “Is this the thing Starscream’s working on for Scorponok?” Astrotrain wondered once they were in the elevator.

“I highly doubt it’s actually for Scorponok,” Blitzwing replied. “More importantly, were either of you able to get anything out of the Constructicons you were working with?”

“No,” said Astrotrain. “I tried to talk to Scrapper, but he didn’t have much to say.”

“Same with Mixmaster and Bonecrusher,” Blitzwing said. “Bonecrusher barely said three words.”

“They didn’t talk to me either,” Octane admitted, “but I did notice some things going on. When we stopped to go to the mess hall for lunch, Brawl was talking to Scavenger about something.”

“What?”

“I dunno, I couldn’t hear. But it seemed to get him pretty upset, and when we went back to the hangar Long Haul and Scrapper were with him for like thirty minutes talking. They all looked kind of worried.”

“That’s not much help if we don’t know what they were talking about,” Astrotrain said. “Maybe we could ask Brawl.”

“Well, I did say I couldn’t hear,” Octane said, “but it looked like he was being a bully, honestly.”

“Half the bots on this base are bullies, that’s nothing new.” Astrotrain sighed. “But the Constructicons are really acting odd.”

“They probably think we’re acting odd,” Blitzwing pointed out.

“Okay, but so is Cyclonus… and Starscream,” Octane counted off on his fingers. “Only because he’s being more subtle with whatever he’s plotting. And Scourge too, kind of.”

The elevator arrived on the third level and the doors opened to reveal Ramjet, Thrust, and Dirge sitting in the hallway again.

“Should have taken the stairs,” Ramjet said without looking up.

“Do you three seriously not have any other place to play?” Blitzwing asked, annoyed.

“Nah, we do,” said Dirge. “We just like inconveniencing people.”

“Me too,” said Blitzwing. He shifted into tank mode. “Move over.”

The seekers all glared at him. Then they deliberated amongst themselves about which would be worse—moving out of the way and messing up their game or getting blasted by Blitzwing and messing up their game. It took them entirely too long to decide, but finally they stood up, grumbling, and let the triple-changers pass by.

“So,” said Octane once they were back in their room, “since we seem to be stuck on this whatever-it-is Starscream’s putting together, we’re suddenly short on downtime.”

“We can talk to people in the mess hall,” Astrotrain said. “Not very private, though.”

“We can talk to people right now,” Blitzwing said. “I bet most of them don’t have to get up early.” He jabbed a thumb at the door. “There are three coneheads right out there to go chat with.”

“You just threatened to blow up their game,” Octane said.

“So?” Blitzwing opened the door and went back out into the hall. Astrotrain shrugged and followed him, and Octane reluctantly trailed behind.

“No,” was all Dirge said when the triple-changers approached again.

“We don’t need to get through,” Blitzwing said. “We just thought we’d inconvenience people too. Can we play?”

The seekers all looked up and stared blankly. “You want to join the game?” Ramjet asked.

“Yeah.”

“Oh. Well, okay.” The coneheads scooted over and Blitzwing, Octane, and Astrotrain sat down on the floor. The three of them were bulkier than the seekers, so they had to squeeze together to properly circle around the chip piles that were set up. If the hallway hadn’t been blocked before, it sure was now.

“Okay, since you just joined,” Thrust said, “You can each take six chips from the second-to-left pile. You can trade with the player to your right or discard two chips to get one of the bigger ones from the middle.”

“And what’s the point of trading?” Octane asked.

“To get a bigger chip, obviously,” Ramjet scoffed. “Now if you trade, you can count the big chip as one-and-a-half, and that’ll count towards your score.”

“As opposed to the two you had before?” Astrotrain asked. He wasn’t understanding anything so far.

“Well, yeah. But it’s a bigger chip.”

“All right, then…” Astrotrain picked up six chips. “If we’re trading with another player, what are we trading for?”

“You have to flip for it,” Thrust said. “Red side up means you take three, blue means you forfeit three.”

“I think I’ll skip that,” Blitzwing said, collecting his own six chips. “I’ll swap for a big one, though, what the hell.”

A chiming sound made all six bots look up and towards the elevator. The doors opened to reveal Vortex, who took a single step forward and stopped dead when he saw them. He stared at them for a full minute and apparently decided that his chances of getting through were zero, because he said, “Forget it,” and hit the _close doors _button.

“Ha!” said Thrust. “That’s what I’m talkin’ about!”

They returned to the game, where Dirge explained that to trade for a big chip, you used the discard pile to the left, but if you forfeited chips, you used the one on the left, unless you forfeited to the player on your right.

“This game is very confusing,” Astrotrain said after Ramjet finished explaining how to flip three different colored chips and what each color interaction meant.

“We just meant it to be time-consuming,” Dirge said.

“That it is,” Octane said. “You three should open up a gaming emporium after the war. You’ll keep bots occupied for weeks at a time.”

“There’s an idea,” Thrust said. “If the war ever ends.”

“I wonder if it ever will,” Ramjet said thoughtfully.

“Not with Scorponok in charge,” Dirge said gloomily. The three of them all sighed in unison and started the game back up.

Eventually Blitzwing, Octane, and Astrotrain had to bow out and go to sleep, telling the seekers that they had to be up early to work with the Constructicons. The coneheads replied that they were going to stay up all night because they were mostly sure that Starscream wouldn’t have anything for them to do tomorrow.

The next morning, an annoyed Starscream was trying to get three half-asleep coneheads to understand their assignment for the day. He was failing miserably. Eventually he just dragged them outside and they all took off.

They returned at the end of the day (the triple-changers stuck the entire time building with tight-lipped Constructicons) looking a lot worse for the wear. Starscream started bitching to Soundwave about how many times the coneheads had crashed into various things, including the ground. And each other.

Soundwave waited until he was finished before telling him that the Constructicons and triple-changers had actually completed fourteen components that day, as opposed to the nine done the day before (really only due to the Constructicons’ efficiency).

“At least _someone _around here can do their job properly,” Starscream said, and dismissed them all for the evening.

Octane, Astrotrain, and Blitzwing had decided to talk to Scourge and the sweeps today, and they found them outside the base, doing rounds. It seemed to be all they did, really. They weren’t flying this time, just marching around on foot.

“Evening, Scourge,” Octane said, giving him a little wave.

“Hi,” said Scourge, not stopping. Octane jogged along beside him, and Scourge gave him a wary stare. “Do you need something?”

“Yeah,” said Octane. “Can we ask you about Cyclonus?”

That made Scourge stop, and Blitzwing and Astrotrain caught up. “What about him?” Scourge asked suspiciously.

“He seems… very tired,” Astrotrain said. “We were just concerned.”

Scourge visibly relaxed. “Well, that’s nice of you. He’s just, you know, dealing with some stuff.”

“Is it about Galvatron?” Blitzwing asked.

“Partly,” Scourge said. “I… I don’t think I should go into too much detail.”

“Is it anything we can help with?” Octane asked innocently.

Scourge glanced towards the base. “I don’t know. I don’t want to say anything that would get him in trouble.”

“What, with Scorponok?” said Blitzwing. “We can be discreet. Besides, we were living in Autobot City until four days ago and we’re not in trouble.”

“I suppose that’s true,” Scourge conceded. “Scorponok doesn’t seem to be much for details—except the total number of troops.”

“So is Cyclonus all right?” Astrotrain prodded.

Scourge sighed. “I don’t think he is. When Galvatron died, he was very upset. But he said he was also kind of relieved.” Scourge paused. “You know how Galvatron treated him.” The triple-changers nodded. Astrotrain knew better than anyone how often Galvatron beat his own troops. He tried to tamp down the anxiety building inside by reminding himself that Galvatron was very dead.

“But then he felt guilty for feeling relieved,” Scourge continued. “He said he didn’t know how to feel. When Scorponok went and decided to be in charge, Cyclonus didn’t particularly want to follow him, but he didn’t want to abandon the Decepticons either. So he stuck around, but then Starscream came back. And he started thinking, if Starscream usurped Scorponok—I mean, we were all thinking that—it wouldn’t change anything, we’d still be at war. We’ll just keep fighting no matter how many times we change leaders. He said he was tired of it.” Scourge paused. “He’s been talking to me a lot.”

“Sounds like it,” Octane agreed. “What did you say?”

“Nothing,” Scourge said slowly. “I don’t know what to say. So I just listen.”

“That’s good, though,” Astrotrain said. “Sometimes you just need someone to listen. It sounds like he’s working through it.”

“You think so?” Scourge brightened.

“Definitely,” Blitzwing assured him. “I’m sure he’s glad he has someone he can talk to.”

“Well, _I’m _glad if I’m actually helping,” Scourge said. He patted Astrotrain’s shoulder and Astrotrain jumped a little. “Thank you.” He turned and continued his rounds with a little more spring in his step.

“Hey,” Blitzwing said as they walked back into the base. “Are you okay, Astrotrain?”

“Me? I’m fine.” He just hadn’t liked being reminded of Galvatron’s behavior, that’s all. It wasn’t a big deal. Blitzwing looked like he didn’t really believe Astrotrain, but didn’t push the subject.

They took the stairs up to the third level, but the seekers weren’t sitting in the hall today. They were probably in the infirmary.

“Well,” said Astrotrain once they were in their room, “I think the coneheads might be all right with peace talks.” He paused. “Maybe Cyclonus too. But I suppose we’d have to talk to him directly to be sure. What do you think about Scourge?”

“Hard to tell,” said Blitzwing. “But the good thing is, none of them seem particularly loyal to Scorponok, so it’s a step in the right direction.”

“If disloyalty is what we’re looking for,” Astrotrain replied, “We ought to go to the Combaticons next.”

“What do you think, Octane?” Octane didn’t answer. Blitzwing turned around to see that Octane had already curled up on one of the recharging tables. “Are you asleep already?” Still no answer, so Blitzwing shrugged. “Guess he was tired. We have been working all damn day.”

“Yeah.” Astrotrain sat on his own recharge table, thinking that he didn’t really want to talk to Cyclonus. It was just going to remind him of working under Galvatron. Then again, Cyclonus might understand the way he was feeling. That twisting anxiety that said _be on your guard be on your guard be on your guard._

“Astrotrain?” Blitzwing said gently. “Are you… sure you’re all right?”

Astrotrain blinked, coming out of his thoughts and focusing on Blitzwing’s concerned face. “I’m all right,” he said, because this was a very important mission, and he wasn’t going to mess it up just because he was having a few jitters. “I’m actually going to go to sleep too.” He laid down on the table, facing the wall.

“Oh… good,” Blitzwing said. Astrotrain heard him climb on to the other table, and thought that was it, but Blitzwing added, “You can talk to me, you know. If you want to. About anything.”

He wished he could talk to someone. But he didn’t know if he wanted to. So Astrotrain just whispered, “Okay,” and tried to go to sleep.

They worked all damn day the next day, too, once again attempting to make conversation with the Constructicons. No dice. And to top it off, they only built eleven components that day, due to a long, raucous lunch cutting into their work time.

The Stunticons were in the mess hall again when the triple-changers and Constructicons arrived. So were the Combaticons, and the Constructicons avoided them as much as possible, grabbing their energon and retreating to a table in the far corner.

Blitzwing, Astrotrain, and Octane decided that sitting with the Combaticons to talk probably wouldn’t make the Constructicons more likely to talk to them later, so they sat at the table next to the Stunticons.

“What’s Soundwave got you three doing?” Motormaster asked.

“Building,” Blitzwing said. “Pretty sure it’s Starscream’s project.”

“Oh, the thing he’s supposedly making for Scorponok?” Drag Strip asked. “What is it?”

Astrotrain shrugged. “We have no idea. You’d have to ask the Constructicons. Or Starscream.”

“I did ask Starscream,” Drag Strip replied. “He laughed and said it was a detonator. He was definitely lying.”

“Any idea what he’s up to?” Octane asked.

“It might be a detonator,” Breakdown said nervously. “Maybe he’s going to blow up the base.”

“Cool,” said Wildrider.

“No, not cool,” Breakdown argued. “We live here.”

“Ah, we could find somewhere else to live,” Motormaster assured him. “We could go back to Earth and do demolition derbies again.”

“But Earth is so far away…” Dead End complained. “And where would we get energon from?”

“Steal it from the Autobots,” Wildrider suggested.

“That’s too much trouble.”

Astrotrain, Blitzwing, and Octane all glanced quickly at each other and focused on drinking their energon. Were half the Decepticons ready to defect already? Scorponok must be doing a pretty terrible job.

“Anyway, see if you can find out what it is you’re building, yeah?” Drag Strip said.

“We’ll try,” said Astrotrain.

The mess hall doors slammed open with a _bang! _and Rumble and Frenzy came barreling in. They hurtled across the room and slid under the Combaticons’ table. A minute later Sixshot stomped in, positively seething.

“You little turds!” he yelled, scanning the room. “Where are you hiding?” He immediately transformed into gun mode. Everyone in the mess hall started protesting, because Sixshot was the most overpowered Decepticon on the whole base.

“Sixshot, don’t!” Onslaught said. “You’ll blow up the energon stores!”

“And everyone in this room!” Long Haul yelled.

Sixshot responded by switching to his tank mode.

“Oh screw you, Sixshot,” said Swindle. “They’re under our table.”

“Ha!” Sixshot screeched. He went to beast mode and lunged at the table. The Combaticons yelped and scattered right before he flipped the whole thing over. “Gotcha!”

Rumble and Frenzy screamed and ran for the door just as Soundwave was hurrying in. “Boss, help!” Rumble cried.

Soundwave skidded to a stop just long enough to take in the situation: two of his cassettes careening towards him in a panic, and Sixshot right behind them in armored car mode with an obliterated table in his wake. Soundwave must have decided there wasn’t time for transforming, because he scooped up the twins, one under each arm, and ran.

“Get back here Soundwave!” Sixshot snarled, destroying half the doorframe on his way out of the mess hall.

“It was a joke!” cried Frenzy’s rapidly fading voice.

The Combaticons stood there staring at the remains of their table and lunch. “That shithead,” Blast Off grumbled. “He spilled all my energon. Swindle, gimme somebody’s code so I can get more.”

“You’ll owe me a trip,” Swindle said immediately.

“Fine, I don’t care. We’ll go to your stupid trading post.” Blast Off shoved Swindle over to the dispensers.

“Maybe we should all go,” Vortex said thoughtfully, looking down at his own lunch seeping into the mess hall floor.

“I hear you talking about defecting over there,” Motormaster called.

“Shut up, you were talking about it earlier.” Vortex kicked a couple pieces of the table around and shuffled out of the mess hall. Onslaught and Brawl followed him, mourning their own unfinished energon but apparently not wanting to owe Swindle anything.

The Stunticons went on their way shortly, and the triple-changers finished their own lunch and were getting ready to head back to the second-level hangar when they noticed the Constructicons were still huddled at the corner table.

“Um… are you guys heading back?” Astrotrain asked. Upon closer inspection, he added, “Are you okay? You look a little shook up.”

“We are,” said Scavenger. “A little shook up, I mean.”

None of the other Constructicons said anything, and Astrotrain didn’t really know what to say either. A minute of awkward silence followed before Blitzwing said, “Do you want to walk back with us?”

“Yeah, okay,” Scrapper agreed. He gestured for the others to get up.

The walk back to the hangar was also quiet, but the triple-changers had gotten used to it by then. However, once they got back to building, they noticed that the Constructicons said a little more to them. Nothing chatty—still instructions and guidance, but slightly wordier and almost friendly, rather than the short, blunt sentences they’d been getting before. Progress, perhaps?

Starscream wasn’t happy later when he learned that they only finished eleven components, but Soundwave didn’t seem to care at all. In fact, he looked a bit worn out.

Astrotrain went over once they were all dismissed and asked Soundwave, “Rumble and Frenzy doing all right?”

Soundwave stared at him for a moment, then tapped his tape deck and said, “They are grounded.”

“Ah,” said Astrotrain, and he didn’t know if he should say that was good or too bad, so he just left without saying anything.

It wasn’t even that late when they got back to their room, but Octane immediately climbed onto his table again.

Blitzwing and Astrotrain exchanged a glance. “Octane?” Astrotrain said.

“What.”

“You okay?”

“No.”

Astrotrain recalled what he’d said to Scourge, and what Blitzwing had said to him the previous evening. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Octane heaved a deep sigh. “I just miss Sandstorm. I’m tired. I want to sleep.” He turned to face the wall and didn’t say anything else.

“Oh,” said Astrotrain. “If we can do anything to help…” No reply. Astrotrain shook his head helplessly at Blitzwing, who was clearly concerned.

But they didn’t want to bother Octane if he wanted to be left alone, so they just sat and quietly discussed their progress so far. Not a single Decepticon they’d spoken to so far seemed to have any sort of loyalty to Scorponok. It was harder to gauge who was up for peace talks without being direct, but from the conversations they’d had so far, plenty of bots were not opposed to the idea of ending the war. They’d been here five days, and they thought that was a pretty good start.

Astrotrain and Blitzwing were still worried about Octane the next day, but he was acting completely normal and didn’t bring the previous night up, so they didn’t either.

The Constructicons were a little more talkative again. Blitzwing and Astrotrain took the opportunity to try to keep conversations going.

“So what are we building, anyway?” Blitzwing asked. He was helping Bonecrusher and Mixmaster fit together some very tiny circuits in the component they were working on.

“It’s a matter converter,” Bonecrusher said as if it was obvious. “Haven’t you been looking at the blueprints?”

“Not really,” Blitzwing admitted. “I was just doing whatever you guys said to do.” He looked around at what they’d built so far, and wondered what in the world Starscream was going to do with a giant matter converter.

“He keeps telling everyone it’s a detonator,” Astrotrain said. He was nearby assisting Scavenger. “I think Scorponok is the only one who believes him.”

“That’s because Scorponok’s an idiot,” Mixmaster muttered.

“I’ve gotten the impression a lot of the Decepticons think that,” Blitzwing said. “Why’s everyone following him?”

“Why are _you _following him?” Mixmaster countered.

“Uh… because he’s the one in charge, I guess.”

“Right.”

The rest of the conversation went back to the actual matter converter. The Constructicons were quite happy to explain the blueprints in more detail, although it was still a big jumble to Astrotrain, and he had a headache by the end of the day. (Lunch was blissfully uneventful. Someone had cleaned up the smashed table, but the mess hall doorframe was still wrecked.)

When Astrotrain mentioned it, Blitzwing sent him back to their room to lie down, assuring him that he and Octane would go talk to the day’s targets: Weirdwolf, Mindwipe, and Skullcruncher.

Astrotrain laid on the recharge table and tried not to think about anything. Unfortunately, his brain module had other ideas. He thought about the anxiety he’d been having—which, to be honest, he’d had for a long time now—but it was slightly worse now that he was back on Chaar. He thought about Octane being upset the previous evening, and how he’d wished he could help but Octane hadn’t wanted to talk about it. He thought about Blitzwing telling him he could talk to him about anything, and he thought that maybe Blitzwing had also really wanted to help but Astrotrain hadn’t wanted to talk about it.

He had no idea how much time had passed when the door opened and Blitzwing entered the room. His head was feeling better, though, so he sat up and asked, “Where’s Octane?”

“He said he was going to go talk to the Terrorcons,” Blitzwing replied. “How are you feeling?”

“My head doesn’t hurt much,” Astrotrain said. “But…”

“But?” Blitzwing tilted his head slightly.

“I guess I’m… not completely okay,” Astrotrain admitted, and years of ruthless leadership by both Galvatron and Megatron made him feel a twinge of shame for saying it out loud.

Blitzwing immediately pulled himself up onto the table beside Astrotrain. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m just… very on edge,” Astrotrain said quietly. “I’m anxious. Sometimes I feel like I’m going to get… attacked. Out of nowhere.”

“Is it because of Galvatron?” Blitzwing asked carefully.

Astrotrain nodded.

“I think,” Blitzwing said slowly, “I think that’s normal. I mean, he hit you. A lot, for no reason. I’m not sure how to help exactly, but…” He reached out and grasped one of Astrotrain’s hands, holding it firmly between his own. “I just want you to know I’m here for you. Anytime you feel anxious, or you need to talk, or anything else. I’ll be here. And,” Blitzwing squeezed Astrotrain’s hand a little tighter, “you’ll always be safe with me. I promise. And I will stick to you like glue if you need me to.”

Astrotrain looked at Blitzwing’s face and saw nothing but earnest determination, and it did something to his spark. He wasn’t sure exactly what. He lifted up his other hand and placed it on top of Blitzwing’s. “Thank you,” he said. “That… that really helps.” He gave Blitzwing a small, slightly uncertain smile. “I’m glad I decided to talk to you.”

“Me too,” Blitzwing said, smiling back. “I’m glad I can help.” He opened his mouth like he was going to say something else, but a ping from his comm link cut him off. Astrotrain’s pinged at the same time; it was Octane calling both of them.

“Hey guys,” Octane voice came through. “I’m going to keep talking to people. I’ll be back late. You don’t have to wait up.”

“Uh… all right,” Astrotrain said. “We’ll see you in the morning, I guess?”

“Yeah,” came the reply. “See you.” The comm link cut out.

“Hm.” Blitzwing frowned. “I wonder if that means he’s feeling better.” He looked up at Astrotrain and his frown faded. “It’s already late. I’m going to go ahead and go to sleep. You okay for now?”

“Yeah,” said Astrotrain softly. “I’m okay.”

Blitzwing squeezed his hand again, then hopped off the table and climbed onto one of the other ones. Astrotrain laid back down again, his headache mostly gone. His thoughts kept drifting to everything Blitzwing had said until he nodded back off.

They had no idea what time Octane had come back to their room, because he was already awake when they got up the next morning, sitting on his recharge table and messing around with his datapad.

“Hi,” said Blitzwing,

“Hey,” Octane responded, not looking up.

“So how did it go with the Terrorcons?”

Octane shrugged. “They were having some dumb competition and they wanted me to play with them before they’d talk. They’re not very bright. But they don’t seem to care much for you-know-who, just Sixshot. I think they’ll do pretty much whatever he says.” He pointed at his datapad to indicate why he hadn’t named Scorponok. They might not be bugged, but better safe than sorry.

“Hmmm. So Sixshot next maybe.” Blitzwing looked at Astrotrain, who was listening quietly. “Morning.” He smiled at him.

Astrotrain wasn’t sure why, so he just smiled back, then turned his attention to Octane. “How are you doing, Octane?”

“Mm. Tired,” said Octane, and he did look tired. “Got back pretty late. Better than sleeping too much, right?”

“Uh…” said Astrotrain, because he didn’t think either was a good thing.

“Well!” said Octane. “Let’s get going. There are only six components left on this converter thing, so we ought to finish it today, right?” He slid off the table and made for the door.

Being done with Starscream’s weird project did sound like a relief. Astrotrain and Blitzwing followed Octane outside to the stairwell.

When they reached it, Octane tripped and nearly fell down the stairs, but Astrotrain grabbed hold of his wrist just in time. “Careful.”

“Mnh,” Octane mumbled, and kept going.

The Constructicons were all in pretty good moods, excited to finish building the pieces. They all got right to work, and had five of them done by lunchtime. Octane was even more sluggish by that point. When they got to the mess hall, he immediately slumped in a chair and put his head on the table.

“Um…” said Blitzwing. “You want us to grab you some energon?”

“Not hungry,” Octane muttered.

“Octane,” Astrotrain said, concerned, “how much sleep did you actually get?” Octane didn’t answer. After a minute of silence, he and Blitzwing went to get lunch, and brought one back for Octane just in case.

When they sat down at the table, they realized he’d fallen asleep.

“I bet he didn’t sleep at all,” Blitzwing said accusingly. “Why would he do that?”

Astrotrain just shook his head helplessly. He and Blitzwing drank their energon in silence, although the rest of the mess hall was less than quiet. Soundwave and all six cassettes were sitting one table away; Soundwave himself seemed stoic as usual, but all the cassetticons except for Ravage were being extremely loud. Astrotrain was impressed that Octane had managed to doze off in the first place.

Ten minutes later, the Constructicons stopped by the table on their way out. Astrotrain and Blitzwing were done, but Octane still hadn’t woken up.

“Are you coming back to the hangar?” Scrapper asked. He pointed at Octane. “Is he asleep?”

“Yeah,” said Blitzwing. “We’ll be along in a minute.”

“He was really out of it earlier,” Hook said. “Not much help to be honest.”

“I’m sure we can finish the last part by ourselves,” Long Haul said. “Do you want to just take him back to your room?”

Blitzwing threw a brief glance in Soundwave’s direction. He didn’t _look _like he was listening, but then again, he never did. “No, we’re coming.” He gently shook Octane’s shoulder. “Hey. Lunchtime’s over.”

“Ugghhhh,” Octane groaned, lifting his head. “Wha?”

“You fell asleep on the table,” Bonecrusher said helpfully.

“Oh.” Octane looked around blearily, saw the energon sitting in front of him, picked it up, and chugged it all at once. “Blech.” He pushed himself up off the table, swaying unsteadily. “Okay, I’m good. Back to work.”

“You don’t look okay,” Mixmaster said as they all trotted out of the room. “You look like you’re about to fall over.”

Octane shrugged but didn’t argue.

“So…” said Scrapper. “How are you three adjusting?”

“Uh, good,” Astrotrain said, caught slightly off-guard. The Constructicons had been even more talkative so far than the previous day, but the conversations had been mostly related to the project.

Scrapper nodded slowly. “Getting along with everyone?”

“The Predacons are still jerks,” Blitzwing said. He seemed surprised by the questions as well. “Some things are different though.”

“Like what?” Scavenger piped up.

“Er, Cyclonus…” Blitzwing said slowly. “But why are you asking? You know that, right?”

They arrived back at the hangar and Mixmaster and Long Haul immediately started working on the last component. Astrotrain joined in, and the other six Decepticons kind of just hovered around, because they couldn’t help much without getting in the way. Octane sat on the floor.

“Yes…” Scrapper glanced around the room, then said, “Octane said you three were working for the Autobots.”

“What?” Blitzwing squeaked.

“He said that you’re trying to figure out who’s ready for the war to be over. For peace.” The other Constructicons and Astrotrain all stopped what they were doing and turned to look, Astrotrain’s optics growing wide.

“Octane!” Blitzwing exclaimed, spinning around.

Octane looked up at him tiredly. “I did?” He frowned. “I don’t remember.”

“You—you—um—” Blitzwing turned back to Scrapper, “Are you going to tell anyone?”

“So it’s true,” Hook said, and Blitzwing clapped a hand over his mouth, probably just realizing that he should have denied it.

Astrotrain tried to think of something to say to fix the situation, but nothing came. Blitzwing’s mouth was opening and closing, no words coming out. Octane seemed too tired to be very concerned.

“Well, we are,” Scrapper said firmly.

“You, uh,” Blitzwing finally sputtered, “you are what?”

“We’re ready for the war to be over.” Scrapper gestured to the rest of the Constructicons. Blitzwing and Astrotrain could only stare, still processing the situation.

“We’ve been ready,” Mixmaster added.

“Ever since Galvatron died,” Long Haul said.

“It’s been _awful_,” said Bonecrusher.

“We just want to leave Chaar,” Hook put in.

“Wait,” Astrotrain said. “Wait. You’re all ready to take off, just like that? Because Galvatron is dead? Were you all that… loyal?”

The Constructicons all exchanged glances and apparently had some sort of silent communication. Then Scavenger took a deep breath and said, “You know that Galvatron was reconstructed from Megatron, right?”

Astrotrain and Blitzwing nodded.

“Well… Megatron… reprogrammed us. A while back.” Scavenger looked at the floor. “To be loyal to him. It was permanent. There wasn’t—there wasn’t any way to undo it.”

“He reprogrammed you? Forcibly?” Astrotrain grimaced in disgust.

“Yes. And even though Megatron technically died,” Scrapper said, “because Galvatron was still him—sort of, I don’t know how it worked—the programming was still working on us. But now that he’s dead…”

Blitzwing gasped. “Oh! You’re back to the way you were before!” The Constructicons nodded. “How _were _you before?”

“Just builders,” Long Haul said sadly. “And when Megatron did that to us, he turned us against our friend—Omega Supreme.”

“We just want to leave here,” Mixmaster said. “And see him.”

“And apologize,” Hook said.

“And maybe… maybe be friends again,” Bonecrusher said hopefully.

“You three are going back to Earth, right?” Scavenger said.

“Y-yes… not yet, but yes,” Blitzwing said cautiously.

“Can you take us with you?” Scrapper said. “Please?”

“I guess?” Blitzwing looked to Astrotrain and Octane for assistance. Astrotrain shrugged. It wasn’t part of their mission, but this was an entirely unprecedented situation. It didn’t seem right to leave them here—not after learning that they were never really here of their own free will.

Unhelpfully, Octane just said, “_I _want to go back to Earth.”

“You need to go back to bed,” Astrotrain told him.

“But I want to see Sandstorm,” Octane whined.

“You need to keep your mouth shut, is what you need to do,” Blitzwing said, annoyed. “You’re going to blow our cover.”

“No, I won’t!” Octane protested. “I’ve been doing a good job!”

“You already did!” Blitzwing hauled Octane up off the floor. “Come on, I’m taking you back to the room. Dismissals be damned.”

“I can work,” Octane argued, but Blitzwing was already dragging him out of the hangar.

“So we can go with you?” Scavenger asked a minute later.

“Yes,” Astrotrain decided. All the Constructicons exclaimed excitedly and began thanking Astrotrain profusely. “Uh… it’s not a problem. We won’t be going back for two more weeks though.”

“Oh, that’s fine,” Hook said cheerfully. “Then we’ll have time to prepare.”

“Oh boy, oh boy!” Mixmaster said. “We’re going to see Omega Supreme again!” He picked up Long Haul and swung him around.

Long Haul just laughed. “Come on, let’s finish this last piece.”

“Okay, okay.” The two of them got back to work and finished in record time.

“Now what?” Astrotrain wondered.

“Tell Soundwave we’re done?” Bonecrusher suggested. He looked thoughtful. “Did you talk to Omega Supreme while you were on Earth?”

“Um,” said Astrotrain. “Not really. He’s not super sociable.”

“Oh, that is true,” Mixmaster agreed. “I hope he’s been doing all right. I hope he’s not too angry with us…”

“He definitely used to be angry with us,” Scavenger said, and the mood in the room slowly started to deflate. “We even fought him as Devastator. Do you think he’ll forgive us?

The Constructicons pondered that for a little bit. “How about if we bring him a gift?” Scrapper suggested. “As a peace offering?”

“A gesture of friendship?” Long Haul piped up. “Oh, oh! We could build something!”

“That’s a good idea,” Hook agreed. “What should we build?”

Astrotrain had no idea, but the answer was apparently obvious to all of them, because they all started talking at once. “…would need to find the blueprints…” “…We’d have to find the material once we get to Earth…” “…he’d be really happy, though, I think…” Then they all started to leave, still talking animatedly. Astrotrain didn’t stop them, because, well, the project _was _finished.

He was trying to decide if he should just leave too when Soundwave showed up with Ravage and Ratbat in tow.

“Shouldn’t there be nine of you in here?” Ravage sniffed. Soundwave looked around the hangar and his gaze settled on Astrotrain.

“Uh, it’s finished,” Astrotrain said, pointing at the last component.

Soundwave walked over, inspected the piece, and said, “All right. Dismissed.”

Astrotrain hurried out before he changed his mind (or Starscream showed up with a new project). He called Blitzwing on the comm. “Hey, are you up in the room?”

“No,” came the reply. “I left Octane sleeping. I’m up on the observation deck.”

“Okay, I’ll be right there,” Astrotrain said, heading for the elevators.

When he reached the observation deck, Blitzwing was the only one there. He was sitting in one of the console chairs and staring out through the dome at the planet outside. There wasn’t much to see on Chaar, but the stars were nice. “Hi,” he said to Blitzwing.

Blitzwing turned and smiled. “Hey.” He patted the chair next to him, and Astrotrain joined him at the window.

“I forgot to ask,” Astrotrain said, “How did it go with Weirdwolf and the others yesterday?”

“They’re lazy as shit,” Blitzwing replied. “If we started peace talks I don’t think they’d care one way or another.”

“That sounds about right.” Astrotrain gazed at the barren planet outside. “Not much to look at.”

“Not out there,” Blitzwing said, elbowing him. Astrotrain glanced around the deck, confused. There wasn’t much to look at inside either. “That reminds me, I forgot to ask _you,_” Blitzwing went on, “How are you doing today?”

Astrotrain thought about that. He’d been less anxious today. He told Blitzwing as much, and said, “What you said… it’s still helping, if that makes sense.”

“Yeah!” Blitzwing said with a grin. “It was meant to keep helping. That makes me happy.” He scooted his chair over so it bumped into Astrotrain’s. “Just being with you makes me happy, of course,” he went on, “But helping you makes me happier.” He grabbed Astrotrain’s arm and pulled.

Astrotrain wasn’t quite sure what Blitzwing was doing at first. He ducked his head under Astrotrain’s arm while pulling it up and behind his neck and turret. When he stopped wiggling around, Astrotrain’s arm was slung across Blitzwing’s shoulders and the top of his wings, and Blitzwing was leaning into Astrotrain’s side.

This was extremely touchy-feely, much more than Blitzwing had ever been before. Maybe he was trying extra hard to make Astrotrain feel better, but Astrotrain didn’t have a whole lot of experience with… cuddling? Is that what they were doing? He tentatively gave Blitzwing’s shoulders a little squeeze, and Blitzwing hummed contentedly. Okay. Whatever the purpose, it was nice.

They sat like that for a while, just looking out at the stars. Astrotrain wasn’t sure when, but eventually one of them shifted, and Blitzwing sat up and sighed.

“Guess we should check on Octane,” he said reluctantly.

“Yeah,” Astrotrain agreed, although he had been pretty comfortable.

They made their way back down to the third level, taking the stairs. They’d been smart to, because the coneheads were in the hallway playing their game again. Astrotrain and Blitzwing waved at them and they waved back.

Octane wasn’t in their room. “Really?” said Blitzwing, and called him on the comm.

“Yes?” Octane’s voice came through.

“Where are you?” Blitzwing demanded.

“I’m just in the mess hall, geez,” was the reply.

“Okay,” Blitzwing said suspiciously, “Did you at least get a decent amount of sleep?”

“Yes, yes,” Octane said. “I’m good, I promise. Sorry for, uh, spilling the bolts to the Constructicons.”

“_Luckily_ it worked out,” Blitzwing said. “Just watch it.”

“Oh,” Astrotrain said. He’d just opened up his datapad (he’d turned the notifications off when he went to find Blitzwing earlier) and there was an assignment for the next day. Very early the next day.

“What?” Blitzwing said. He noticed the datapad in Astrotrain’s hands and pulled out his own. “Really?”

“What does yours say?” Astrotrain asked, because he doubted they’d gotten the same one—his said “TRANSPORT PROJECT COMPONENTS TO SECONDARY LOCATION AT 0500.”

“Assemble project components at secondary location,” Blitzwing grumbled. “More building. At least the Constructicons will be happy about it.”

“That came through an hour ago,” Octane said over the comm link.

“You got the same thing?” Blitzwing said. “0500?”

“Yeah.”

“Don’t stay up too late then.”

“Okay, Optimus.”

“Shhh!” Blitzwing hissed.

“I’m just joking! Talk to you later.” The link cut out.

Blitzwing glared at the door. “I swear to Primus, if he says anything stupid to anybody I’m gonna kill him.”

Astrotrain did not want to get up at 0500. Blitzwing’s complaining made it quite clear he didn’t want to either, and Octane was just making groggy whining noises. He hadn’t come back to the room by the time Astrotrain and Blitzwing turned in, and Astrotrain suspected that Octane once again hadn’t gotten enough sleep.

He was too tired to think much on it, though, and the three triple-changers headed down to the hangar in silence.

The Constructicons were already there with Starscream. “Oh, good,” said Starscream when they came in. “The shuttle’s here.”

Astrotrain just sighed and waved Blitzwing and Octane away so he could transform. Starscream opened up Astrotrain’s door and carried in one of the components. “Hmm,” Starscream said. “Looks like we’ll have to make several trips.”

Astrotrain could have told him that. His shuttle transformation did involve mass shifting, but the fifty-three pieces they’d spent nearly a week building were _huge._ There was no way he could carry them all at once. His guess was at least ten trips, factoring in Starscream, the Constructicons, and the other two triple-changers as passengers. He just hoped wherever they were going wasn’t too far away.

It was.

And not only was it far away, it was extremely difficult to land and take off from. Starscream had keyed the coordinates into Astrotrain’s console, and led them (the first load consisted of Starscream, Scrapper, Long Haul, and six components) to a dismal, lifeless planet that was actually worse than Chaar, because its atmosphere was full of constant, roiling gas storms.

They dropped off the components and Constructicons and went back to Chaar. On the first few trips he took more passengers than cargo; eventually all six Constructicons along with Blitzwing and Octane had been dropped off on the planet.

Starscream stopped to give them all very detailed starting instructions, and Astrotrain was glad for the brief break. It was already lunchtime, and he’d been flying back and forth nonstop since they’d started. He wasn’t looking forward to struggling up through this planet’s storms for the sixth time.

“How are you holding up?” Blitzwing asked, walking over to Astrotrain’s shuttle nose.

“Just need a little rest,” Astrotrain replied. “I think we’ve only brought half the parts.”

“Blitzwing!” Starscream yelled. “Get back over here! You need to listen to the instructions!”

“Yeah, yeah!” Blitzwing called. He patted Astrotrain’s hull. “Go slower if you have to, yeah?”

“Okay,” Astrotrain said, but he’d really rather get this over with faster. Starscream climbed back on board, and Astrotrain fought his way out of the atmosphere and began the trek back to Chaar.

The coneheads were hanging out in the hangar when they returned, and they helped Starscream load more parts into Astrotrain’s bay. Starscream badgered them the whole time about being careful. “This is an _extremely_ important project!” he told them.

“Uh-huh, for Scorponok, we know,” Ramjet said.

Astrotrain flew back to the planet—Starscream hadn’t told them what it was called. Maybe it didn’t even have a name. He was grateful that the atmosphere entry was mildly easier than the exit.

He barely got time to see how the building progress was coming along before the components were unloaded and Starscream was telling him it was time to go.

He lost track of how many times they went back and forth.

He vaguely comprehended that the project hadn’t been completely assembled by that night. Starscream was annoyed. They had to secure the device and remaining components, and Astrotrain was glad, again, for the brief rest.

Blitzwing seemed annoyed at Octane for saying something while Starscream had been nearby. What, Astrotrain had no idea. He just wanted to make the last trip back to Chaar and finally get out of shuttle mode. He was exhausted.

Finally—_finally—_Starscream was satisfied that his device was secure, and everyone boarded Astrotrain to leave.

The ride back was quiet. Blitzwing, Octane, and the Constructicons were undoubtedly tired too, and Astrotrain was fine with the silence because he really didn’t have the energy for any conversation. Starscream spent the entire trip (as he had most of them) mulling over his datapad and occasionally talking to himself.

Back at the Decepticon base, Astrotrain transformed into robot mode and groaned. He was aching all over. He shuffled towards the door and Blitzwing hurried after him, offering an arm for support. He accepted wordlessly, leaning heavily onto Blitzwing. He was so damned tired, he just wanted to lie down for an entire day.

Octane and Blitzwing were whispering back and forth in harsh tones; Astrotrain couldn’t focus on what they were saying.

They took the elevator, and for once the coneheads moved out of the hallway without being asked.

“He ran you pretty ragged, huh,” Thrust said sympathetically. Astrotrain just nodded tiredly.

They entered their room and Astrotrain sat heavily on his recharge table. Blitzwing came over, sat beside him, and began rubbing Astrotrain’s wings. It soothed the aches, somewhat, and Astrotrain focused enough to realize that Blitzwing and Octane were still arguing.

“I didn’t even say anything specific!” Octane was saying.

“Not this time,” Blitzwing retorted. “But that’s not the point. You’re slipping up because you’re _tired. _How late were you up? You knew we had to be up early.”

“I was talking to Cyclonus,” Octane said, defensiveness clear in his voice. “That’s what we’re supposed to be doing, right? That’s part of the mission.”

“Did it have to be late at night?” Blitzwing demanded. “And you didn’t actually answer me. You barely got any sleep, I know it, you look awful.”

“You know what?” Octane said angrily. “I’m trying to do what we’re supposed to be doing! And maybe I’m doing it to take my mind off of other things!”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Astrotrain turned his head wearily and saw Octane throw his hands up in the air. “Sandstorm, okay? I miss him! And it’s miserable!”

Blitzwing frowned. “Are you telling me that you’re staying up late on purpose? So you’ll be too tired to, what, dwell on things?”

“Yes,” Octane said, scowling back.

“Well, you need to cut it out!” Blitzwing said. “Because when you’re tired, you’re doing a shitty job at keeping our cover!”

“I’m still getting things done,” Octane shot back. “I’m just trying to—to make this go by faster. So I can see him. It’s…” He folded his arms and turned away. “You know what? Forget it! You wouldn’t understand anyway.”

Blitzwing stiffened, and his hands fell from Astrotrain’s wings. He slid off the table and made no attempt to soften the noise when his feet hit the floor.

Startled, Octane turned around.

Blitzwing’s fists were clenched and shaking. Astrotrain couldn’t see his face, but when he spoke it was angry, and hurt. “How dare you?” Blitzwing said, his voice quivering. “I wouldn’t understand?” He took a step towards Octane, who was frozen to the spot. “I wouldn’t _understand?_” Blitzwing drew a shuddering breath. “We were separated for over a _year!_ Sandstorm is on Earth, and he’s _safe!_ Astrotrain was here! _Here_, being, being abused—” Blitzwing’s voice broke and he just gestured angrily at Octane.

“Blitzwing…” Octane said, his optics wide. “I’m… I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that.”

Blitzwing didn’t reply, he just started scrubbing at the tears leaking out from under his visor. Astrotrain immediately stood, ignoring how unsteady he was. “Don’t—don’t cry,” he said, and he didn’t know what was more distressing—Blitzwing crying, or the fact that Astrotrain had no idea _why_ he was crying.

“Blitzwing,” Octane said pleadingly, extending his arms toward the other bot, “Please. I’m sorry. I was being an ass.”

Blitzwing sniffled. Astrotrain didn’t know what to do. Should he say something? He didn’t even know what they were arguing about.

Blitzwing looked up, his face still streaked with tears, and said thickly, “Yes. You were. Apology accepted.” He stepped forward and accepted Octane’s hug, too.

“I’m sorry,” Octane said again, and now he was sniffling. “I’m so tired. It was dumb. I was being dumb.”

“It’s not dumb to miss him,” Blitzwing mumbled. “Just talk about it next time.”

Astrotrain hovered next to them, concerned. They were both still crying, but they were hugging, so it seemed to be all right now. He was wondering if he ought to just hug both of them and that might help.

A loud knock at the door made them all jump. Being the closest to it, Astrotrain stepped over and cracked it open.

Soundwave was standing outside. “Soundwave?” Astrotrain said, confused.

“Soundwave?” Octane repeated. He and Blitzwing shuffled over. If Soundwave noticed that they’d been crying, he made no indication of it.

“Hello,” Soundwave said.

“Uh…” said Astrotrain. “Can we… help you?”

“I am retrieving Ratbat,” Soundwave replied. “He likes to sit in the vents above this room.” Soundwave raised his voice slightly. “Ratbat! Return.”

There was a scuffling noise from the ceiling. The three triple-changers all looked up and watched, baffled, as the vent in the corner popped open and Ratbat flew out.

“It’s not that late!” Ratbat protested. Soundwave just opened his tape deck and waited. Ratbat transformed and docked without arguing further.

“Uh… w… hang on,” Blitzwing said as Soundwave turned to leave. “How… how often does he go in there?”

“Usually every day,” Soundwave said. “Good night.” He walked off down the hallway, unconcerned.

Astrotrain, Blitzwing, and Octane spent a good minute staring after him.

“I don’t… I don’t think I can deal with the implications of that right now,” Octane said. And oh, were there implications. Had Ratbat heard everything? Did Soundwave know?

Astrotrain decided he couldn’t deal with it either. “Let’s just go to sleep,” he said. “We all need to sleep.” He closed the door firmly.

They all agreed, and the intention was to climb onto the tables and do just that. They were exhausted, physically and emotionally, but they couldn’t stop the apprehension now present, despite deciding to leave it for the morning. They needed some comfort, and they needed something to hold on to. None of them said anything, but somehow they just all ended up on the floor, in the corner, together in one big tired heap.

They were awakened, rudely, by someone knocking on the door again. Blitzwing was the one to extricate himself from the triple-changer pile and stumble over to open it.

It was Bonecrusher. “Starscream sent me to get you,” he said. “Did you sleep through the datapads going off?”

“No…” Blitzwing said blearily. “We stashed them behind a panel in the hallway in case they were bugged.”

“Oh,” said Bonecrusher. “Well, we’re supposed to go finish the assembly.”

“What time is it?” Octane groaned.

“0610,” Bonecrusher said. “You were supposed to be there at 0600.”

“Ugh.” Astrotrain struggled to his feet. He didn’t feel like he’d rested nearly long enough. His entire body was aching. When had they even gone to sleep? How late had it been when Soundwave came by? Oh Primus, Soundwave…

“Ah shit,” Blitzwing said. “Dammit, shit…” He continued muttering curses as the three of them dragged themselves out of the room and followed Bonecrusher to the stairwell.

“Uh,” said Bonecrusher. “Everything okay?”

“No,” Octane wailed. Blitzwing just kept swearing and Astrotrain was too tired to think, let alone talk. Bonecrusher just nodded and didn’t ask any more questions.

“Oh look,” Starscream said when they arrived at the hangar. “The three stooges are finally here.” From the smirking that followed, Starscream apparently thought that was quite clever, but Astrotrain had no idea what three stooges were.

He glanced around the room, but Soundwave wasn’t there. He didn’t realize he’d said that aloud until Starscream replied, “No, he’s taken his brats somewhere with Blast Off. I’m personally overseeing the completion of the project anyway.”

“Oh,” said Astrotrain. He hoped that wherever Soundwave had gone had nothing to do with anything Ratbat overheard last night. Or the night before that, when they were discussing their mission. Or the night before that when they were _also _discussing their mission… Like it or not, they were probably going to have to confront Soundwave.

Astrotrain realized that everyone was watching him expectantly. It took his sleepy brain module a minute longer to figure out why, and he quickly transformed into shuttle mode.

“About time,” Starscream said, herding everybody on board.

Blitzwing sat down, put his arms on his knees, and buried his head in his arms. Octane just curled up in a ball on the floor. Astrotrain felt mildly annoyed; it wasn’t fair that he was still the one always carrying everyone. He was tired too.

No, no; it wasn’t their fault. He definitely didn’t want to start any fights. His mind wandered to the argument Blitzwing and Octane had. Blitzwing had gotten really upset talking about how he’d missed Astrotrain in the time after Galvatron kicked Blitzwing out. Astrotrain wasn’t sure exactly what that had to do with Octane and Sandstorm, but he knew Blitzwing had told him, after they’d come and brought Astrotrain back to Autobot City, how much he’d missed him.

Had he told Blitzwing that he missed him too? About how much he’d wished Blitzwing would come back? How many times he’d thought he would be a little less miserable on Chaar, if only Blitzwing were there too? He didn’t think so. He’d been so overwhelmed and trying to readjust on Earth, that he thought he’d forgotten to tell him. It suddenly seemed really important to fix that.

They arrived at the now-familiar dead planet where Starscream’s contraption was almost complete. Blitzwing jolted awake when Astrotrain landed and started grumbling again.

“Hurry it up, hurry it up!” Starscream was saying, now shooing the Decepticons out onto the planet’s surface. “Time to get this finished!”

Astrotrain wasn’t sure if he was supposed to help or not, but he went ahead and changed back to robot mode and hurried behind the group. They all seemed to pick up, presumably, where they’d left off yesterday. Astrotrain hadn’t done any building yesterday, just endless hauling, so he just stood awkwardly off to the side and waited.

It took them about an hour to get the whole thing completed; then Starscream had to start doing inspections. He had the Constructicons form Devastator to help, since the finished device was about the same height as the combiner.

As Starscream was flying around above, Octane sat down and started stacking rocks. Astrotrain took the opportunity to approach Blitzwing. “Hey, Blitzwing, can I talk to you for a minute?”

Blitzwing looked mildly surprised. “Of course. You don’t have to ask.”

“Oh. Well… I was thinking, about when I was back on Chaar. And you’d been banished.”

Blitzwing’s expression shifted into one of concern. “Okay?”

“It’s not—there’s not anything wrong,” Astrotrain said hurriedly, not wanting Blitzwing to worry about him. “You were talking last night about missing me, right?”

Blitzwing nodded. “Yeah. I missed you a lot.”

“Well, I missed you a lot too,” Astrotrain said. “I was thinking about it on the way here, and I just really thought you should know.”

Blitzwing nodded again, “Yeah, I know.”

It was Astrotrain’s turn to look mildly surprised. “But I didn’t say. I didn’t tell you.”

“Well, no,” said Blitzwing, “But we’ve basically been inseparable since then. Doesn’t that speak for itself?”

“I… guess you’re right,” Astrotrain said, but still… “But I wanted to say it. I’m glad you know, but I really missed you. It hurt. I’m happy we can be together again.”

A slow, soft smile spread across Blitzwing’s face. “Me, too,” he said. He leaned over and gave Astrotrain a quick peck on the cheek.

Astrotrain smiled back, utterly confused. What? Maybe Blitzwing was being extra affectionate because he was concerned.

“Time to go!” Starscream called. “We can’t conduct the field test while we’re on the planet’s surface!” He flew down and transformed in midair, landing on his feet.

Astrotrain nodded and changed back to shuttle mode. Starscream was going on about something to do with the atmosphere and possible disruptions of the gas storms and other things that Astrotrain didn’t understand. He stopped thinking about Blitzwing’s bizarre behavior and started wondering what Starscream’s end goal was with this thing.

“All right,” Starscream said eventually. “It’s activated, now I just need to monitor it. We can go back to Chaar.”

When they arrived back at the Decepticon base, Starscream dismissed everyone except Astrotrain. He said he needed to check the converter’s progress from the communications room, and if he found anything off they’d have to go back to the planet and double-check it.

“See you in a bit,” Octane said. “Probably. Blitzwing and I are going to see Cyclonus.”

“Okay,” Astrotrain said, giving them a wave as they headed in opposite directions.

Starscream went straight to the communications room and stopped outside the door, making a face. After a moment he pushed the button to open the doors. The “throne” inside was unoccupied. “Oh, good,” said Starscream. “That moron Scorponok isn’t here.” He went over to one of the consoles and began working while Astrotrain twiddled his thumbs. Which was fine, he needed a break.

He sort of wanted to ask Starscream what the device was doing, but he didn’t think he’d get a simple answer. He knew it was a “matter converter” and that was about it. Astrotrain sighed and just hoped he wouldn’t have to make another trip.

Those hopes were dashed a minute later when Sixshot came in and said, “Ah, the shuttle!” He strode right over to Astrotrain and continued bossily, “You’re coming with me.”

“Um,” said Astrotrain. “Right now?”

Sixshot let out an exaggerated sigh. “Uh, _yes_, right now, let’s go.” He jabbed a finger towards the door.

Astrotrain glanced over at Starscream, who’d looked up when Sixshot came in and then gone right back to his console. “I can’t right this instant,” Astrotrain said.

Several things happened very quickly, and most of it Astrotrain didn’t realize until it was over.

“Yes you can,” Sixshot said angrily, and his hand shot out towards Astrotrain—most likely to grab his arm, but all Astrotrain saw was Galvatron again, smacking him halfway across the room just for reporting in, and his body reacted before his brain module. He flinched, stumbled backwards, and threw his arms up to soften the blow.

Sixshot frowned, his hand still reaching towards Astrotrain, who wanted to stand up and lower his arms, but there was a whirling ball of panic sitting in his chest that wouldn’t go away. “What are you doing?” Sixshot asked, annoyed.

“What are _you _doing?” Starscream asked, now somehow standing right behind Sixshot.

Sixshot gestured vaguely to Astrotrain. “I was giving the shuttle an assignment, and he’s—I don’t know what he’s doing.”

Astrotrain, somehow, forced himself to put his arms down and face the two Decepticons. Starscream was staring at him with an unreadable expression. It had to be unreadable, because Astrotrain didn’t know why Starscream, of all bots, might be looking at him with the smallest hint of sympathy.

“Too bad,” Starscream said. “You can’t give him an assignment. He’s working with _me_.”

“So?” Sixshot scoffed. “I don’t think you outrank me.”

“I do,” said Starscream. “But you can take it up with Cyclonus or Soundwave, because _they_ certainly outrank you, Sixshit.”

Sixshot turned to fully face Starscream. “Ex_cuse_ me?”

“Certainly,” Starscream said. “You’re excused.”

“How dare you!” Sixshot growled. “You arrogant little—”

“I apologize,” Starscream interrupted in the sweetest voice possible. “Let me put that in terms you can understand. Fuck off.”

Sixshot looked like his head was going to start smoking. He glared at Starscream, then Astrotrain, snarled “We’ll settle this later, Starscream,” and stomped out of the communications room.

As soon as he was gone, Starscream turned to Astrotrain and said, “You’re dismissed.”

Astrotrain tried to say something, but when he opened his mouth he couldn’t get any words out. He swallowed and tried again. “I’m—I’m sorry.”

Starscream was now looking at him like _his_ head was smoking, which he hoped it wasn’t, because he didn’t need that on top of everything else.

Starscream turned on his comm link and said, “Blitzwing! Octane! Come get your missing musketeer.”

Both of them replied. “Do you mean Astrotrain?” Octane asked, laughing.

“I don’t know what a musketeer is,” Blitzwing said.

“I do!” Octane declared. “It’s an Earth term! Where are you, anyway?”

“Communications room,” Starscream said.

“Okay, we’ll be right there.” They apparently saw no reason to ask why they had to come to get Astrotrain.

Starscream sauntered back to the console and started tapping away again. Astrotrain tried to compose himself before the other triple-changers got there. Maybe he could just go meet them. They didn’t have to come pick him up, he was fine. Why couldn’t he get this under control? Galvatron was dead. Gone. Astrotrain took one step towards the door just as it slid open.

“We’re here!” Octane announced. “Are you all done?”

“So I guess you didn’t need to… to…” Blitzwing stopped short when he saw Astrotrain. “What’s wrong?”

“I…” Astrotrain said, “I’m, um, okay.”

“You don’t look okay,” Octane said. “Are your hands shaking?”

Blitzwing didn’t even wait for an answer to that one, he just marched over and wrapped Astrotrain up in a hug.

“Me too,” Octane said, and wriggled his way into the embrace.

They stood there hugging for several minutes, Starscream pointedly ignoring them. Eventually Astrotrain managed to stutter out what had happened, which resulted in several more minutes of hugging, until Starscream stopped ignoring them and kicked them out.

Astrotrain wasn’t up for much conversation, so Blitzwing and Octane took him outside to watch the Stunticons race on the obstacle course they’d put together. It wasn’t very well put together, and things kept falling apart and tipping over, resulting in quite a few crashes. The Stunticons seemed to be enjoying themselves anyway. Although a lot of the ramps they were using looked suspiciously like doors that had gone missing recently.

While the Stunticons were putting their course back together for the fifth time, Blitzwing asked Astrotrain, “How are you feeling?”

“I’m all right now,” Astrotrain said. “Really,” he added when Blitzwing gave him a scrutinizing look. He did feel a lot better just from sitting down for a while.

“Okay,” Blitzwing said after a moment. “Wanna talk about it?”

He didn’t, not really. He was mainly feeling annoyed at himself for not having control over his own actions. He said, “Not right now. What did you talk to Cyclonus about?”

Octane glanced down at the Stunticons. The triple-changers were sitting atop a large rock a safe distance away from the almost-demolition-derby, so they were out of earshot. “Well… it involved Galvatron,” he said. “You still want to hear it?”

“Yes,” Astrotrain said. “Galvatron’s dead. It’s fine.” He ignored the nasty shiver that went through his wings.

“Okay… well, I went myself to talk to Cyclonus the other day,” Octane said. “And he just went on about how he was never able to do anything for Galvatron, and he just let Galvatron keep getting worse and worse even after realizing he couldn’t help him.” Octane sighed. “It was depressing. It really didn’t help my mood that day.”

“But… Galvatron hit him too,” Astrotrain said. “I don’t think there was a way to… help.” Blitzwing took Astrotrain’s hand and gently entwined their fingers together. Astrotrain gave his hand a grateful little squeeze.

“I don’t either.” Octane shrugged.

“So anyway,” Blitzwing said, “We went to see him today to try and get an idea of what he’s going to do, right? Because he’s still second in command, technically.”

“And?” Astrotrain said.

“He basically said he’s just going to keep doing as little as possible, because he doesn’t like Scorponok and doesn’t particularly want to follow his ‘moronic plans’.” Blitzwing paused thoughtfully. “I’m not sure if Cyclonus knows what he wants to do. He doesn’t want to leave the Decepticons entirely in Scorponok’s hands, but he doesn’t seem to have the get-up-and-go to lead them himself.”

“I’m pretty sure he’s depressed,” Octane said.

“Oh,” said Blitzwing. “I guess that would do it.” He stared off at the Stunticons wrecking their obstacle course again, then said, “You guys want to go to the mess hall? I’m hungry.”

“Yeah!” Octane said. “Mixmaster said that Soundwave and Blast Off were bringing back some new energon.”

“Urgh,” Blitzwing said. “We have to talk to Soundwave later, huh…”

Crap, Astrotrain had forgotten about that already. The triple-changers didn’t talk on the way to the mess hall, but Astrotrain figured that Octane and Blitzwing were probably mulling over the same problem he was. Did Soundwave know they were working for the Autobots? The most likely answer seemed to be yes, but if so, why hadn’t he done anything about it? There was a possibility he didn’t know, but how could they ask him without making it obvious they were hiding something?

His train of thought was interrupted when they arrived at the mess hall, because it was ridiculously crowded. While there were still a couple of tables available, the room was filled with noisy chatter and there were actually lines at the energon dispensers.

“Whoa,” said Blitzwing. “Is everyone on the base in here?”

“Um, duh,” said Weirdwolf, who was sitting nearby with Skullcruncher and Mindwipe. He had his feet up on the table, as usual. “New energon.”

“Oh,” Blitzwing said. “Is it good?” He gestured at the cubes they were drinking.

“I don’t like it,” Mindwipe said. “It’s kinda nasty. But it’s different.”

“Well, all right then,” Octane said. He trotted across the room and got in line behind two of the Predacons.

Astrotrain looked around the bustling mess hall, and said to Blitzwing, “Do you want to go ahead and claim a table? I’ll get you some energon.”

“Sounds like a plan!” Blitzwing gave Astrotrain a thumbs-up. Astrotrain went to join Octane. Octane immediately informed him that a couple of the Sweeps had also just said that the energon was kind of gross, but still seemed quite excited about it.

When they got to the dispensers, Octane tried a tiny bit of it. “Echh,” he said. “I’m pretty sure this is plutonium energon. This stuff really upsets my stomach.” He filled up a whole cube anyway.

Astrotrain didn’t bother trying it, he just figured lunch was lunch, and filled up two cubes for himself and Blitzwing. He looked around until he spotted Blitzwing and Octane, and made his way over to the table. It looked like Octane had gotten straws from somewhere too.

Astrotrain sat down, placing the two cubes on the table. Octane handed him straws; he stuck them in the energon and took a sip of his own while sliding the other one over to Blitzwing. It _was_ rather gross.

“Thanks, love,” Blitzwing said.

Astrotrain choked on his energon, coughed, and sputtered, “L-love?”

Blitzwing smiled at him, sipping on his own straw. “Hmm?”

Astrotrain stared at Blitzwing, his own lunch utterly forgotten. Because maybe some of Blitzwing’s odd, affectionate behavior had a reason. “Do you… you… love me?”

Blitzwing beamed at him. “Yeah! I do!”

Several things were starting to make a lot more sense. Astrotrain was staring at Blitzwing, his processors running in overdrive, when something seemed to occur to Blitzwing and he frowned.

“Wait,” said Blitzwing. “Did I not say that, uhhhh… like two days ago when we talked?”

Astrotrain was incredulous. “No. No you did not.”

“Ohhhh!” Blitzwing exclaimed. “Sorry! I thought I did! I guess I was just thinking about it really hard.” He paused. “You seemed fine with cuddling on the observation deck, so I thought I had got the point across?”

“Uhh…” said Astrotrain. “I thought you were just trying to cheer me up.”

“I was,” Blitzwing said. “But you didn’t say anything when I gave you a kiss earlier?”

“I… didn’t know what to say,” Astrotrain admitted. “It does make sense now.”

“Oh, geez,” said Blitzwing. “I’m sorry. That’s my fault. Here, I’ll fix it.” He looked Astrotrain firmly in the optics and said, “I love you.”

Astrotrain still didn’t know what to say. Now that he was thinking about it, he definitely had _some_ sort of feelings for Blitzwing. He just maybe needed more than two minutes to think about what they were.

“Primus,” said Octane. “You’re both so stupid.”

“Shut up,” Blitzwing said. “You’re the one sitting there drinking plutonium energon. Doesn’t that make you sick?”

Octane looked down at his cube, then looked back up at Blitzwing and lied to his face. “No.”

“I’m going to puke,” Octane groaned from his recharge table. “I’m going to hurl up my entire fuel tank and die. Tell Sandstorm I love him and I’m sorry.”

“Dumbass,” was all Blitzwing had to say. He placed a bucket next to the table. “Puke in this if you have to. We’re going to go find Soundwave.”

“Okay,” Octane said miserably. “Maybe he’ll blow our cover and we can go home.”

Blitzwing decided to ignore that and they left Octane bemoaning his fate.

Once they stepped out into the hall and retrieved their datapads, Blitzwing took a moment (probably to steel his nerves) before calling Soundwave on the comm link. “Hey, um, Soundwave?”

Soundwave responded right away. “Yes.”

“Uh, this is Blitzwing and Astrotrain…”

“I know who this is.”

“Right.” Blitzwing glanced nervously up at Astrotrain. Astrotrain decided to take over, even though he was probably just as nervous.

“Can we come talk to you for a minute?” Astrotrain asked.

“You can,” Soundwave responded. “I am in the communications room.”

“Oh… is Scorponok there?”

“Affirmative.”

Astrotrain hoped that Soundwave had the comm set to private (so others in the room couldn’t hear who you were talking to), but just in case he said, “We, um, don’t want to bother him. Can we meet you somewhere else? Alone?”

There were a few nerve-wracking minutes before Soundwave answered. “Yes,” he said. “I will meet you in the fourth level weapons storage.”

“Okay. Thanks.”

Blitzwing turned off the comm and said to Astrotrain, “You don’t think he’s gonna blast us to bits, do you?”

“Probably not?” Astrotrain replied as they headed for the stairwell. “There are easier ways to get rid of us, right? And why would he care about doing it himself? It’s not like he wants to impress Scorponok or anything.”

“Does anyone on this base want to impress Scorponok?” Blitzwing wondered.

“Nobody we’ve talked to so far.”

“Okay, but that still doesn’t mean Soundwave approves of what we’re doing,” Blitzwing said, chewing on his thumb. “If he knows. I’m pretty sure he knows.”

Astrotrain didn’t say anything, because he was pretty sure Blitzwing was right, but he didn’t think agreeing with him would make him feel any better. Instead he just grasped Blitzwing’s hand. Blitzwing grasped back, and they walked all the way to the weapons storage room without letting go.

They didn’t bother to knock, just went right in. Soundwave was standing off to the side, alone. Well, probably not alone. He was usually carrying at least three cassettes at any given time.

“Hi,” said Blitzwing.

“Hello,” said Soundwave.

Blitzwing jumped right to it. “Sooo… about Ratbat and those vents. Does he, er… hear things while he’s frolicking around in there?”

“Yes,” said Soundwave.

“Does he tell you about the things he hears?” Astrotrain ventured.

“Yes.”

Astrotrain and Blitzwing looked at each other, trying to figure out how to ask the next question without giving themselves away. They couldn’t figure it out, but Soundwave solved that problem with the next thing he said:

“Are you trying to ask if I know you are working for the Autobots. Because that answer is also yes.”

“Oh,” Blitzwing said, his voice going up a pitch. “Um… how much do you know?”

“I know the length of your mission and I know the purpose of your mission.”

Well. Astrotrain didn’t know if it was worth asking how long Soundwave had known, so he just asked the most important question: “What are you going to do?”

“I do not plan to tell Scorponok,” was all Soundwave said, which wasn’t actually an answer.

“Okay…” Blitzwing said. “Are you going to stop us?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

Soundwave sighed, which was an odd noise and almost sounded impatient. “You are not causing disruptions or harm. Excuse me. I must return to the communications room.” He strode past the triple-changers and walked out into the hall, then stopped short. “You have not spoken with Starscream,” he said thoughtfully.

“No,” said Blitzwing apprehensively. “Not yet.”

“It is recommended that you wait until after tomorrow afternoon to do so,” Soundwave said, and then he was gone.

“Does… does that mean he’s okay with this, or…?” Astrotrain said slowly.

“I have no clue,” Blitzwing said. “I’m really stressed right now. You wanna go sit in the observatory for awhile and not think about anything?”

“Yes,” said Astrotrain. Far too many things had happened today and not worrying about any of them until tomorrow sounded like an excellent idea. He offered Blitzwing his hand, and Blitzwing enthusiastically accepted. He wasn’t sure what they were now, and he wasn’t exactly sure what his feelings were, but he wasn’t going to think about that right now either. The two of them headed off to the elevator hand-in-hand.

For the first time in a week, the triple-changers didn’t have to get up early and go build something. Astrotrain woke up at 0900 and felt better than he had in days.

Octane didn’t, apparently. “Ugghhh,” he said, still lying on his recharge table. “My stomach still hurts.”

“It’s your own fault, though,” Astrotrain said. “Where’s Blitzwing?”

“He went to see if Hook has anything to help me feel better.”

“Oh,” Astrotrain said, “that was nice of him.”

Octane sighed. “Sort of. He said he couldn’t stand to listen to me complain anymore.”

Astrotrain considered that. “Are you still… depressed?”

“A little,” Octane said. “Thanks for asking. But I stopped trying to deal with it by oversleeping or undersleeping, and that helped. And you guys helped. Just by looking out for me.” Octane stared up at the ceiling. “It’s hard to be away from someone when you’re used to spending all your time with them.”

“Yeah,” Astrotrain agreed.

“Anyway,” Octane propped himself up on one arm. “How’s it going with you and Blitzwing?”

“Uhh,” said Astrotrain. “I’m not sure.”

“You’re not sure?” Octane pulled himself upright. “How’s that? You like him, don’t you?”

“I… well, yes, of course,” Astrotrain said. “I just don’t really know what to do next. I guess. He told me he loves me. So I was thinking about it, and I know I care about him a lot. But I don’t know if I can say the same thing back to him yet. I should give him some sort of reply, yeah?”

“That’s generally how it works,” Octane agreed. “But you can tell him all that. He won’t mind. He’d do anything in this whole damn universe for you, Astrotrain, and that definitely includes respecting your boundaries.”

“I…” Astrotrain stared at Octane. “How do you know?”

“I may or may not have had a discussion with him earlier,” Octane replied. “Just trying to be a good wingman.” He clicked his wings up and down for emphasis.

Although he was still thinking about how to put his feelings into words, Astrotrain said, “Okay. I’ll tell him.” No sooner had he said it then the door opened and Blitzwing came in.

“Here, you dummy,” Blitzwing said, tossing a small cube of something to Octane. “Hook said it might help.” He turned to Astrotrain and his tone immediately softened. “Morning, Astrotrain.”

“Thanks!” Octane said. “I’m gonna lie down some more. Why don’t you guys go wander the base.”

Blitzwing turned to Astrotrain, who shrugged. “Sure, why not,” Blitzwing said. “Call us if you need anything.” Octane opened his mouth and Blitzwing immediately added, “That we can actually get for you.” Silence followed. Blitzwing sighed. Octane just smiled and shrugged.

Astrotrain and Blitzwing left the room and found Thrust, Dirge, and Ramjet picking up their game set-up off the hallway floor. “Cleaning up already?” Blitzwing asked. “I thought you just got started.”

“We did,” Dirge sighed. “But we have to go help Starscream with something.”

“Ah.” Neither Astrotrain nor Blitzwing had forgotten what Soundwave had said the day before. So whatever Starscream was up to, he’d be done by the afternoon, maybe? There was also the fact that Soundwave probably knew exactly what Starscream was planning, and was not only apparently fine with it but was keeping it under wraps for him. Although he was kind of doing the same thing for them.

“Do you think Soundwave knows everything that’s going on but just doesn’t care?” Astrotrain wondered after the coneheads had left.

“You know what,” Blitzwing said. “We should just go straight-up ask him what his opinions on peace talks are. He already knows that’s why we’re here.”

“Sure. Why not,” said Astrotrain. “Should we call him again?”

“Nah, he might not want to talk. He was a little dodgy yesterday. Let’s just see if we can find him.” Blitzwing jabbed the elevator call button. “Communications room?”

“Okay.” Astrotrain’s mind was wandering, trying to figure out how to bring up the subject of their relationship.

The elevator arrived shortly and they took it down to the second level. The base was pretty quiet, even though it wasn’t that early (they’d figured out that none of the Decepticons cared to get up very early if they could help it).

“You okay?” Blitzwing asked as they stepped out.

“Yeah, just thinking.” Astrotrain decided to ask something he’d been wondering anyway. “If the war ends… what will you do?”

Blitzwing stopped. “I don’t know. I mean, we were already staying on Earth. It’s kind of nice there. Honestly I just want the fighting over. I haven’t really spent a lot of time thinking about it. Have you?”

“Sort of,” Astrotrain said. “Although I don’t really know what I’d do either.”

“Well, you can fly in space—you can go anywhere!” Blitzwing said. “There are all sorts of planets out there and places to explore.”

“I—that’s true, but I—” Astrotrain frowned. What would be the point of traveling the universe without… “I don’t want to go anywhere without you.”

“Oh, good!” Blitzwing grinned. “Me either.”

Astrotrain turned to face Blitzwing and looked him firmly in the optics, just as Blitzwing had done in the mess hall the previous day. No room for misunderstandings. “I care about you a lot,” Astrotrain said. “And I’m really glad we can be together. I don’t want to be separated from you ever again.”

Blitzwing’s mouth dropped open slightly. “Really?”

Astrotrain nodded. “Really.”

“Wow,” Blitzwing said, and he was gazing at Astrotrain with so much affection that Astrotrain felt his face start to heat up.

“What?” Astrotrain said self-consciously.

“I really want to kiss you right now,” Blitzwing said.

That actually sounded extremely appealing, so Astrotrain said, “Okay, go ahead.”

Brief surprise flashed across Blitzwing’s face, then a wide smile, and then he looped his arms up around Astrotrain’s shoulders. Astrotrain responded by placing his hands on Blitzwing’s waist, then Blitzwing leaned forward and gently pressed their mouths together.

It wasn’t much, but it was enough to make his spark stutter, and Astrotrain came to the sudden realization that his entire reason for wanting the war over was the bot he was holding in his arms. With that in mind, he pulled Blitzwing closer, angled their faces a little better, and—

“Eewwwww,” said an obnoxious voice from somewhere near his knees.

Astrotrain and Blitzwing jerked apart and looked down at the source of the noise. Rumble and Frenzy were standing right beside them, Rumble with his hands on his hips and Frenzy holding a large stack of papers.

“Quit mackin’ in the hallway!” Rumble continued loudly. “You’re _disgusting._”

“Yeah, gross,” Frenzy agreed. He began crumpling up the papers he was carrying and pelting the triple-changers with them. Rumble immediately joined in.

“Now see here you little shit—” Blitzwing cut off as Soundwave came around the corner. “I mean you… cool as shit… little cassette.”

Rumble squinted at him. “What?”

“Frenzy,” Soundwave said, and Frenzy froze in the middle of balling up a sheet of paper. “Are those the printouts for Sixshot.”

“Errr… yes. Oops.” Frenzy started picking up the papers he’d thrown and trying to smooth them out again. “Aw, man, he’s gonna be mad…”

Soundwave sighed and began to help Frenzy retrieve the sheets. “I will go with you.”

“Shouldn’t have thrown them everywhere, bro,” Rumble said unapologetically, not helping.

“Rumble,” said Soundwave. “Assist.”

“Okay, okay, okay…”

Astrotrain and Blitzwing waited until Soundwave and the twins had picked up all the papers, then Blitzwing said, “Hey Soundwave, we were actually looking for you.”

“Why,” Soundwave said.

“Yeah, why?” Rumble demanded. “Gonna ask him where the best places to smooch are? ‘Cause it’s not in the _middle of the hall_.”

“Your canoodling locations are not my business,” Soundwave said.

“No!” Blitzwing yelled. “Rumble, shut up.”

“Soundwave doesn’t care about smooching anyway,” Frenzy put in.

“That’s not—” Astrotrain said, embarrassed. “We weren’t—”

“Oh yes you were,” Rumble countered.

“We wanted to ask you about our mission,” Blitzwing said through gritted teeth. “Specifically, your opinions on the end goal.”

That actually quieted Rumble and Frenzy down. The five of them stood in the hallway silently for a few minutes, Soundwave being irritatingly unreadable. Then he said, “It is agreeable.” 

“Oh,” said Blitzwing, looking surprised. “Okay. Well, thanks. Any idea about Sixshot? We hadn’t spoken to him yet…”

Astrotrain didn’t particularly want to go talk to Sixshot, either, not after the incident yesterday.

“Sixshot will most likely follow the orders of the Decepticon leader,” was Soundwave’s answer. He walked away, Rumble and Frenzy trotting along behind him with their respective armfuls of printouts.

“Is he saying we should talk to Scorponok?” Astrotrain said doubtfully.

“That doesn’t seem right, but I guess we can,” Blitzwing said. “But before that, are you up for finding a, er, good place to smooch?”

“Yes,” said Astrotrain immediately.

They wandered around the base for awhile and finally decided to go into the back room of the mess hall where the energon stores were. Since the energon had just been replenished, they reasoned that nobody would be coming in there anytime soon. The door to the storage room was unlocked, and the energon itself was sealed in bolted-down metal containers, although that probably wouldn’t stop a really determined Decepticon. There hadn’t been any such incidents since the triple-changers had arrived at the base, maybe because the energon stored in there was so bad.

Astrotrain and Blitzwing picked up where they’d left off in the hallway. “Mmmm,” said Blitzwing, “I could get used to this.”

“Me too,” Astrotrain murmured, pulling Blitzwing close.

They were just starting to get really into it when the door banged open and Starscream and the coneheads barged in. “Out of the way!” Starscream barked.

“Scrapping shit!” Blitzwing screeched. “Can’t you _knock?_”

“This is a storage room!” Starscream said. “I wasn’t expecting two dipshits to be playing tonsil hockey in here.”

“What’s hockey?” Blitzwing asked suspiciously.

“What’s tonsil?” Astrotrain wondered.

Starscream didn’t bother answering them, he just said, “Out, out, out!” and shooed them through the door. Blitzwing was annoyed, so he hovered around the doorway to see what they were doing. Dirge, Thrust, and Ramjet were carrying large metal containers, and they set them down next to the energon stores.

“What are you doing?” Blitzwing asked. “Stealing all the energon?”

“Ha!” said Starscream. “No. Exactly the opposite. I’m disposing of this disgusting swill Scorponok had Soundwave bring back and replacing it with fresh high-grade.”

That didn’t make any sense at all. “Why?” Astrotrain said. “And where did you get all that energon?”

“You’ll find out soon enough,” Starscream said smugly.

“Whatever,” Blitzwing said, irritated. The mood now fairly ruined, he and Astrotrain decided they might as well go see Sixshot, since they didn’t particularly want to talk to Scorponok.

Sixshot was in his office, although why he had one they weren’t sure. He didn’t seem to have any office duties. He also ignored their knocking, despite the fact that his door had a window and he could clearly see them outside. He was just sitting inside shuffling the same papers around again and again.

They eventually went in anyway. Sixshot looked up with a glare and said, “What do you two want?”

“Ummmm,” said Blitzwing. “Just wondering… how you’re doing?”

“Obviously not wanting to be bothered, but here you are.”

“Well, er…” Astrotrain said. “You didn’t look like you were really doing anything with those papers.”

“What’s your point?” Sixshot retorted. “I thought you were busy running errands for Starscream.”

“No, not at the moment,” Blitzwing said. He cast a sideways glance at Astrotrain.

Sixshot kept frowning. “Does this have something to do with whatever I supposedly did to you yesterday?”

“No,” Astrotrain said immediately. “You didn’t… that wasn’t your fault. I mean, uh, you were being a pushy jerk, but…”

“So you came to my office to tell me I’m a pushy jerk?” Sixshot crumpled up a few of the papers and threw them at the triple-changers. “Fuck off.”

“Listen,” Astrotrain said, irritated. “I meant that you weren’t going to… hit me. I reacted that way because I thought you were going to hit me.”

Sixshot lowered the paper he was about to throw and stared at Astrotrain, looking confused. “No. I wasn’t. Why would I do that?”

“You do act pretty violent,” Blitzwing interjected. “Weren’t you going to shoot Rumble and Frenzy for something a few days back?”

“I was _intimidating_ them,” Sixshot scoffed. “Do you know what those little shits did?” He didn’t even wait for a reply before continuing, “They started a fight with the Terrorcons. I had _just _got them to settle down from their previous fight. Do you know how _long _it takes to get them calmed down? It can take a whole fucking _day!_” Sixshot threw his hands up in the air, and half the papers with them. “Soundwave grounded them when I explained, but still.”

“Oh,” said Blitzwing. “I can’t disagree that Rumble and Frenzy are a couple of little terrors.” Astrotrain was wondering how they were going to get from this subject to possible peace talks.

“And don’t even get me started on Starscream,” Sixshot grumbled, slumping in his chair. “He’s insufferable. He’s always making snide comments and it pisses me off.”

“Yeah, I think he just knows how to push your buttons and thinks it’s funny,” Blitzwing said.

“Well, it’s fucking annoying,” Sixshot said. He crossed his arms. “What _did _you come in here to talk about then?”

“You know what?” Astrotrain said. “I don’t think this is the best time. We’ll stop bothering you now.” He took Blitzwing’s hand and pulled him out the door.

“And don’t come back!” Sixshot yelled after them.

“Well, that wasn’t very helpful,” Blitzwing said as they hurried away. “Scorponok… I guess?”

Neither of them expected it to go any better than the discussion they just had with Sixshot, but they went to find Scorponok anyway.

Scorponok was in the communications room, on his “throne”, happily tapping away on a datapad. He ignored Blitzwing and Astrotrain when they walked in. Soundwave was standing beside Scorponok’s chair, apparently waiting for him to finish.

“Um… hi again Soundwave…” Astrotrain said. Soundwave glanced at them and nodded but didn’t say anything. They decided to keep quiet and not interrupt Scorponok with whatever he was doing.

Eventually Scorponok looked up. He saw the two triple-changers but didn’t acknowledge them at all. He just said to Soundwave, “Everything is ready. Go ahead and make the announcement.”

Soundwave walked over to one of the communications consoles and began broadcasting to the entire base. “All Decepticons. Report immediately to the briefing room on level one. Repeat: all Decepticons. Report immediately to the briefing room on level one.”

“Excellent!” Scorponok cackled, and let out a low chuckle that lasted for two whole minutes. Then he hopped out of his chair and swaggered out of the room.

Soundwave looked at Astrotrain and Blitzwing, nodded towards the exit, and followed Scorponok out.

“Um,” Blitzwing said, “I guess we should go to the briefing room on level one?”

The briefing room on level one wasn’t hard to find, because every bot on the base was making their way there. A lot of them were loudly complaining about it. The griping ranged from “dreading hearing about Scorponok’s next so-called plan” to “I was trying to beat my record for time spent sitting perfectly still and now it’s _ruined_”.

Blitzwing and Astrotrain scanned the crowd for Octane, didn’t see him, and opted to wait inside the door and catch him when he came in. Thrust, Dirge, and Ramjet were also standing inside the door, handing a small box to each bot that came in. The boxes didn’t open, which Astrotrain figured out after fiddling with his for a moment.

The briefing room didn’t have chairs, which was another thing several Decepticons were complaining about. It was just a wide open space with steps to a platform at one end. Scorponok, Starscream, and Cyclonus were up on the platform—Scorponok was primping or something, Starscream was wandering back and forth messing with his datapad, and Cyclonus was just standing there with his arms folded, looking like he wanted to be anywhere else. Sixshot and Soundwave were on the steps, off to the side. Sixshot looked like he was lecturing Soundwave about something, and Soundwave appeared to be ignoring him.

The room continued filling up with grumbling bots, and the ones walking in the door slowed to a trickle. The last two to arrive were Octane and Swindle.

“Hey, Octane.” Astrotrain waved at him.

“Oh, there you are!” Octane’s face lit up. “I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to find you.” He squeezed himself between Blitzwing and Astrotrain and linked his arms in theirs.

“You better not puke on me,” Blitzwing said.

“I won’t,” Octane promised. “I feel much better now.”

“Greetings, my Decepticons!” Scorponok’s voice boomed out across the room, and the triple-changers turned their attention to the platform.

“We’re not _yours_,” Onslaught muttered from nearby.

“My next plan is ready to set in motion!” Scorponok went on. He stopped for an irritating chuckle. “Starscream has completed my new detonator! Starscream, tell them all about it.” Scorponok gestured to Starscream, who sauntered forward.

“Oh, gladly,” Starscream said. “I’ve been looking forward to this for quite a while. But first, some refreshments.” He paused, and Scorponok looked confused.

Soundwave pressed a button and sent out some sort of high-pitched signal that made all the little boxes pop open.

“Oh, it’s energon,” Swindle said. He took a swig. “Huh, it’s really good energon.”

Astrotrain sipped his; it was really good energon. Was it the same high-grade that Starscream and the coneheads had been hauling around earlier?

It was, because the next thing Starscream said was, “I’m sure you’ve noticed that the quality is far above what’s come to be normal around here. Luckily for you, I’ve replaced all the current energon stores with this.”

“Starscream, you’re supposed to be talking about my detonator,” Scorponok said warningly.

“Don’t worry, I’m getting there,” Starscream replied, and continued addressing the crowd. “You may be wondering where this energon came from. I’ll spare you all the scientific details—I’ve designed an energon converter that is currently transforming an entire dead planet into energon, slowly but surely. It will take years to change completely, but can be continuously harvested. That means a steady supply of energon the same quality as you’re all holding.”

“You’re just… turning a whole planet into this?” asked Breakdown, who was near the platform with Motormaster.

Starscream nodded.

“Why?”

“Several reasons,” Starscream said. “First, because I’m a genius and it’s a scientific breakthrough. I’d explain how but I doubt you’d understand. Second, to show you that I’m obviously more suited than Scorponok to lead you all.”

“What?” Scorponok exclaimed.

“That’s right,” Starscream cackled. “You’ve been giving us garbage to eat, fuck-all to do, and you expect loyalty? There is no detonator, Scorponok, you plasma-brained moron. It’s a giant energon converter, and I built it for _me_.” He addressed the crowd again. “And as new leader of the Decepticons, I’m giving you all your first official assignment.” Starscream gleefully tapped his datapad, and a second later every single datapad in the room pinged.

It was a horribly annoying sound amplified like that. Astrotrain, Blitzwing, and Octane opened their devices up to see a single large sentence spelled out across the screen: KICK SCORPONOK OUT.

“Hell yeah, I can roll with that,” said Drag Strip.

“Finally!” said Divebomb.

“Get him!” Wildrider screeched, sounding entirely too excited.

More voices joined in, cheering and jeering, and Starscream took a step up behind Scorponok and kicked him right off the platform into the crowd. The Decepticons fell upon him eagerly, and within seconds Scorponok was being dragged out the door.

“NOOO!” Scorponok screeched. “You horrible traitors! Mutineers! Disloyal piles of scrap!” He continued screaming insults as he was carted off down the hall.

Most of the crowd had exited with Scorponok. Blitzwing, Astrotrain, and Octane were still in the briefing room, trying to absorb what had just taken place. The Constructicons were on the opposite side of the room, against the wall; Weirdwolf, Mindwipe, and Skullcruncher were sitting on the floor (they’d enjoyed the show but couldn’t be bothered to get up.) The coneheads were still near the platform.

Cyclonus was staring thoughtfully at the doorway; Sixshot was looking back and forth between Starscream and the doorway, apparently trying to figure out if that had really happened.

“Problem?” Soundwave asked Sixshot.

“That—what—have you been helping him?” Sixshot demanded. Soundwave didn’t answer. “That’s treason…” Sixshot didn’t even sound like he’d convinced himself.

“The declaration seemed to be accepted unanimously,” Soundwave said.

“That’s right,” Starscream said. “I’m the new official leader of the Decepticons. I outrank you _now_, Bitchshot.”

Sixshot scowled. “Oh fuck you, Starscream.”

“Not in a billion years,” Starscream sneered.

Sixshot turned and furiously stomped out of the briefing room, kicking Mindwipe on his way out (“Hey!”).

“What are you going to do now?” Cyclonus asked Starscream slowly.

“I’m so glad you asked,” Starscream said. “First we’re going to get off this awful rock and find somewhere more habitable.” Starscream eyed Cyclonus warily. “You have no issues with me taking over?”

Cyclonus shook his head. “Not if you’re going to look after them properly.”

“Hm. All right. Constructicons!” Starscream beckoned the six Constructicons over to the platform. “I need you six to start working on a way to convert this base into a ship.”

“Oh, that shouldn’t be hard with the way it was built originally,” Scrapper said. “But it might, um, take a while…”

“You can draw up the plan,” Starscream said, “Make a list of materials, and we’ll put all these Decepticons to work.”

None of the Constructicons replied, they all threw glances at the triple-changers. Maybe it was supposed to be subtle, but the fact that they all looked at once ruined it. Starscream followed their gaze.

“What?” he said. “Did you not work well together or something? You’ll have to deal with it.”

“Oh, no, that’s not it,” Long Haul said, waving a hand. “We worked fine. They were a big help on the converter. Ow.” Hook had elbowed him sharply.

Starscream narrowed his optics and said to the triple-changers, “You three, get over here.” Astrotrain, Blitzwing, and Octane crossed the room and stood beside the Constructicons, trying to look as nonchalant as possible. “What’s going on?” Starscream demanded.

“Nothing…” Astrotrain said, and made the mistake of looking in Soundwave’s direction.

Starscream looked at Soundwave too, but Soundwave just stood there silently. Starscream frowned. “Well, something fishy is going on… Cyclonus?” Before Cyclonus could answer, Starscream went on, “No, you’ve been moping in your office ever since Galvatron died. I’m sure _you _three don’t know,” he added, addressing Thrust, Dirge, and Ramjet, who were still hanging out by the platform.

“Know what?” said Dirge, sounding genuinely confused.

Starscream tapped his chin and pointed at the triple-changers. “Talk.”

“Err, well, we were going to talk to you anyway,” Octane said. “To ask the same question Cyclonus asked.”

“But we were also wondering what your… long-term plans are,” Astrotrain added.

“We’ll have meetings for that,” Starscream said. “It could involve defeating the Autobots.”

_Could_ was an interesting way to put it. “So,” said Astrotrain, “It could also involve other things? I’m just saying a lot of the Decepticons aren’t all that invested in the cause anymore.” That was probably a risky thing to say, but too late.

“And how would _you _know?” Starscream said.

“We’ve been doing a lot of talking to everyone since we got back,” Blitzwing said quickly. “You know, to figure out how things were.”

“I do know,” Starscream said. “Because I did the exact same thing when _I _came back. But I was plotting a coup.” He thought about that for a moment. “You weren’t planning a coup, were you? It didn’t go so well last time.”

“No, no,” Blitzwing said. “Just trying to get our bearings.”

“Or,” said Starscream, “Trying to gather a large amount of information in a short amount of time. You’ve only been here a week and a half. And you know what’s odd? You three coming back after you went to all that trouble to get Astrotrain out.”

“I was getting him away from Galvatron,” Blitzwing said confidently, grabbing Astrotrain’s hand.

“Right,” said Starscream. “You’re spying for the Autobots, aren’t you.”

Blitzwing, Astrotrain, and Octane were silent for way too long before Blitzwing said, “…No…”

“You’re a terrible liar,” Starscream said triumphantly. “Now tell me what the Constructicons have to do with this.”

“Um,” said Blitzwing, “They’re not… uh…”

“We wanted to go back to Earth with them,” Bonecrusher piped up. “Megatron’s reprogramming reverted after Galvatron died.”

“Well,” said Starscream. “That’s too bad, but I still need you to convert this base, so you can’t leave. Astrotrain, Blitzwing, Octane, you’re officially prisoners. Soundwave! Contact the Autobots. Tell them their little plot has been exposed.”

“Wait!” said Octane. “Can we tell you the actual plot? Please?”

“I want to hear it,” Thrust piped up.

“Me too!” called Weirdwolf from across the room.

“Certainly, spill your secrets,” Starscream said. “Was it sabotage? Divide and conquer? Assassination?”

“We’re supposed to be finding out who might be open to peace talks,” Blitzwing said. “And you’re one of the last Decepticons we haven’t spoken to yet. But before we ask you, let me just tell you that most of the bots on this base are just plain tired of fighting. They’re bored, yes, because Scorponok was keeping them here with nothing to do, but I don’t think they want to keep this war going any more than the Autobots do.” Blitzwing squared his shoulders. “So, Starscream, as leader of the Decepticons, are you willing to consider negotiations?”

Starscream looked taken aback. “_That _was your mission?”

“Yeah,” said Astrotrain. “We want to help end the war.”

Several expressions crossed Starscream’s face, then he turned to Soundwave and said, “Still contact the Autobots and tell them we know. And did _you_ know about all this?”

“Yes,” said Soundwave.

“Of course you did,” Starscream muttered, annoyed.

“Can I send a message too?” Octane asked, raising his hand.

“No, you idiot,” Starscream said. “You’re still prisoners. Dirge, Thrust, Ramjet! Escort these three to their room, lock them in, and guard the door.”

“Yes, sir,” the seekers replied.

“Can _we_ send a message?” Mixmaster asked.

“No!” Starscream said. “You’re on thin ice as it is. Go get started on the renovation plans.”

The Constructicons shuffled out of the briefing room, disappointed. The coneheads followed with the triple-changers in tow.

“We blew it,” Astrotrain sighed. “I just hope we didn’t make things worse.”

“I mean, _I’m _okay with peace talks,” Ramjet said. “I don’t want to make friends with any Autobots, but I’m sick of fighting them.”

“Well,” said Blitzwing, “I guess it’s all up to Starscream now.”

Far away, back on earth, Ultra Magnus was heading for the Autobot City communications center to see if Blurr and Arcee had any updates on the Decepticon intelligence mission. He hadn’t even gotten halfway there when Blurr came barreling down the hall and nearly ran him over.

“Ultra-Magnus-Ultra-Magnus!” Blurr cried. “We-just-got-a-message-from-the-Decepticon-base-the-one-on-Chaar-where-Astrotrain-and-Blitzwing-and-Octane-are-and-it’s-from-Starscream-and-he-says-he’s-in-charge-now-and-he’s-kicked-Scorponok-out-and-he-knows-about-our-spies-and-he-wants-to-talk-to-Optimus-Prime!”

Ultra Magnus did a double take. “What?!”

Blurr took a deep breath, about to repeat everything, but Ultra Magnus hurriedly held up a hand. “No, sorry, I did get what you said. I just—I’ll tell Optimus.”

Five minutes later, Optimus Prime arrived in the communications room, along with Ultra Magnus. Arcee, Blurr, Sandstorm, and Perceptor were in there already. Sandstorm wasn’t normally assigned to communications monitoring, but he’d stuck himself in the role for this mission and refused to budge. Perceptor happened to be in there fixing a console when Starscream’s message came through, and now he was standing at the screen with the other three.

“All right, I’m here,” Optimus said. “Open a channel.”

Starscream and Soundwave popped up on the screen.

“Greetings, Starscream,” Optimus said. “I hear you’re leading the Decepticons now.”

“That I am,” Starscream said with a smirk. “I suppose you also heard that we uncovered your little infiltration mission.”

“Where’s Octane?” Sandstorm asked loudly.

“Your triple-changer spies are confined to quarters and under guard,” Starscream replied. “Now. I’m told you’re interested in negotiations. For, at the very least, a truce.”

Optimus didn’t try to hide his surprise. “Yes. We are. Are you?”

“As a matter of fact, I am,” Starscream said. “But I also have several advantages at the moment.” He started counting off on his fingers. “I have your spies. I have the Constructicons, who are no longer brainwashed and wish to defect. And I have a significant scientific achievement that you’ll be very interested in.”

“Really?” Perceptor said, perking up.

“Oh yes,” Starscream said with a grin. “I’ve designed a new kind of energon converter and it’s currently working on converting an entire dead planet.”

“What?” Perceptor exclaimed. “How does it work? How long does the conversion take? It’s continuous?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” Starscream said smugly.

“The applications of such a device could be immense,” Perceptor said, sounding very impressed. “Wait until I tell Skyfire!”

“Skyfire?” Starscream repeated, startled. “Is he still… no, never mind. I’m… willing to meet to discuss terms. Just know that we have the upper hand.”

“And the triple-changers and Constructicons?” Optimus asked.

“We’ll trade them,” Starscream said. “We’re going to be in need of a large amount of raw materials. We can talk about it. Soundwave is sending you the coordinates for a neutral, unoccupied moon. If _you’re _willing, we can meet there.”

“We are more than willing,” Optimus said. “Thank you, Starscream. How many should be in our group?”

“No more than six,” Starscream said. He paused. “And bring Skyfire.”

“Done,” said Optimus. “And the time?”

“0900 tomorrow,” Starscream said, and ended the transmission.

“I’m going,” Sandstorm announced immediately.

“All right, Sandstorm,” Optimus said, patting him on the shoulder. “Ultra Magnus, Arcee, and Jazz will accompany us as well. Kup and Hot Rod ought to be able to look after things here.”

“Yes! Thank you, Optimus!” Sandstorm ran out of the room, practically bouncing with excitement. The others went to track down Jazz and fill him in so they could get started prepping for negotiations.

Astrotrain, Blitzwing, and Octane spent the night having no idea what had transpired on the communication. They kept knocking on their door and bugging the coneheads, but Thrust, Dirge, and Ramjet said they didn’t know either and please cut it out because it was annoying enough that they had to guard them all night.

“You’re literally just doing what you do every night but outside our door,” Blitzwing argued, and that was true—the seekers were playing their chips game again.

“Okay, then quit interrupting our game,” Thrust retorted.

The triple-changers eventually gave up and went to sleep, only to be rudely awakened at 0700.

“Up and at ‘em!” Ramjet said. “Starscream says we’re going on a trip!”

“Oh, great,” Octane groaned. “What’s he gonna do, throw us into a sun?”

“Dunno,” Ramjet said. “But you gotta wear cuffs.” He and the other two coneheads snapped handcuffs on the triple-changers and marched them out of the room. They took them down to a first floor hangar where Starscream, Sixshot, and Cyclonus were waiting near a shuttle. Sixshot didn’t look too happy.

“You’re all going?” Blitzwing said. “Who are you leaving in charge?”

“Soundwave,” Starscream said, shooing them on board. “Get a move on,” he added sarcastically, “We wouldn’t want to keep Optimus Prime waiting.”

“Optimus?” Octane repeated. “We’re going to see Optimus?”

“Yes,” Starscream said. “For negotiating. And trading you three back.”

“Wha… seriously?” Astrotrain said, amazed. “You’re negotiating with the Autobots? What about the Constructicons?”

“I need them at the moment,” was the reply. “But I _suppose _they’ll factor into the discussions as well.”

“Is it just Optimus?” Blitzwing asked.

“He’s bringing others, but I don’t know who,” Starscream said impatiently. “Ask Cyclonus.” He went up to the front of the ship to prepare for launch.

“Okay. Cyclonus?”

Cyclonus studied the triple-changers for a moment, then pulled out his datapad. “Hm,” he said. “Optimus Prime has stated that he is bringing the Autobots Ultra Magnus, Arcee, Jazz, Skyfire, and Sandstorm.”

Octane gasped. “Sandstorm? Oh boy! Ohboyohboy!” He started bouncing up and down.

“Who’s Sandstorm?” Dirge asked, looking amused.

“Octane’s boyfriend,” Astrotrain said

“An Autobot?” Dirge made a face. “You really went a hundred percent on the defecting, huh.”

“_Excuse_ me, I was banished,” Octane said. “And Sandstorm is amazing and I love him.”

“Blech,” said Dirge. Octane ignored him and continued bouncing excitedly until Starscream told them all to sit down.

Astrotrain was all too happy to. He leaned on Blitzwing and gazed around the shuttle’s interior as it lifted up out of Chaar’s atmosphere. “It’s weird riding in a ship,” he said.

“I guess it would be, huh,” Blitzwing said, leaning into Astrotrain as well. Astrotrain would have taken his hand, but they were both still cuffed. “Do you prefer it?”

“I wouldn’t say prefer,” Astrotrain replied. “But it’s nice not to be the spacebus for once.”

They sat quietly for a while, Octane finally settling down enough to ask the Cyclonus, “So why’s Sixshot along?”

“He’s fourth in command,” Cyclonus said without looking up. “We’re not sure if he’s actually decided to stick around for good or not.”

“Huh.” The rest of the ride passed in silence, Astrotrain, Blitzwing, and Octane wondering if Starscream was serious about negotiations.

The neutral moon was small and pale blue. When they arrived, Starscream got agitated about something—he wouldn’t say what—and made them wait several minutes before exiting the shuttle so he could compose himself.

When they climbed out, Astrotrain felt what he never thought he would upon seeing a group of Autobots: a wave of relief. All six Autobots that Cyclonus had named were there. Optimus Prime and Ultra Magnus standing firm and formally; Arcee and Jazz looking a little more relaxed but just as serious; Sandstorm looking like he was about to cry; and Skyfire towering over the rest of them.

Starscream walked stiffly forward, flanked by Cyclonus and Sixshot. The triple-changers trailed after them, guarded by Thrust, Dirge, and Ramjet.

Starscream stopped, leaving a fair gap between the groups. “Optimus Prime,” he said.

“Starscream,” Optimus responded politely.

While the groups continued exchanging unnecessary greetings, Octane hissed, “Why does Sandstorm look so upset?”

“He’s probably worried about you,” Blitzwing murmured.

“Sandstorm!” Octane stage-whispered, but Sandstorm didn’t hear him. Octane fretted for about five seconds, then screamed at the top of his voicebox, “Sandstorm! I love you!!”

Everyone stopped talking and stared at him, including Sandstorm, whose entire face lit up. Before anyone else had a chance to say anything, Sandstorm screamed back, “I love you too! I missed you so much!!”

Optimus cleared his throat. “Er, all right. Let’s move along—”

“I missed you too!” Octane bellowed. “I thought about you every day!”

“Me too!” Sandstorm screamed. “I wanted to send you a message but Ultra Magnus wouldn’t let me!”

“Sandstorm…” Ultra Magnus said warningly.

Octane kept screaming right back. “Me too but I couldn’t blow our cover!”

“Octane, shut _up_,” Starscream said. He glared at Astrotrain and Blitzwing, who just shrugged.

Sandstorm started blowing kisses at Octane. Optimus just shook his head and sighed. Jazz and Arcee seemed to be having trouble keeping straight faces.

“Are you done?” said Ultra Magnus.

“Never!” was Sandstorm’s answer.

“You tell ‘em, Sandy!” Octane yelled.

“That’s it,” Starscream said. “One more word and you’re banned from this meeting.”

“But we’re not even part of it, we’re just hostages,” Octane protested. “Hey!” he squawked as Starscream grabbed his cuffs and started dragging him back to the shuttle. “I’ll see you later!” he called back to Sandstorm, then “Ow!” when Starscream kicked him inside the ship and slammed the door.

“There,” Starscream said, dusting his hands off. “Please take care of the disturbance on your side.”

Ultra Magnus fixed Sandstorm with a stern, blank gaze and held it. Sandstorm couldn’t take it for very long, and ran to hide behind Skyfire. “I’ll be quiet…” he promised.

“Huh,” said Ramjet. “He seems to be just as dumb as Octane. No wonder they got together.”

“I don’t think you’re in any position to be judging someone for being dumb,” Blitzwing said.

Ramjet thought about that for a minute, then said, “Yeah, I guess not.”

“Back to negotiations…” Optimus said. “Can we start with a cease-fire from both of us?”

“That sounds fair,” Starscream said. “We agree not to come and attack you if you agree to the same.”

They both agreed, tactfully ignoring the fact that the Decepticons did the attacking ninety percent of the time.

“Now, we can help each other out,” Starscream said. “I’m willing to share the energon converter technology with you if you lend me a scientist to continue my research with it. Namely, Skyfire.”

Skyfire smiled warmly. “Really, Starscream?”

Starscream lost his composure for a brief moment but quickly regained it. “Yes.”

“You know I’m more than happy to help you with research,” Skyfire said. “You only have to ask.” He turned to Optimus. “I’m perfectly all right with this proposal if you are.”

“It sounds like a fair compromise,” Optimus agreed. “We agree with your conditions.”

Starscream’s face broke into a wide smile. “Good!”

“Now then,” Optimus went on, “About the Constructicons. You said they wished to defect.”

“Yes, I think you know about Megatron’s brainwashing?” Starscream said. Optimus nodded. “Well, with Galvatron dead it’s not working anymore, so they’d like to leave the Decepticons and go see Omega Supreme.”

“That’s wonderful news,” Optimus said. “I think Omega Supreme will be very happy to hear it.”

“I have no problem with them leaving,” Starscream said. “But I do need them to finish building us a ship first. Unfortunately, we don’t have any other skilled builders. You can have six Decepticons to help you with something until it’s finished if you want.”

“That’s a generous offer,” Ultra Magnus said skeptically. “But are there any Decepticons who actually want to come help us with anything?”

Starscream looked at Cyclonus and Sixshot. Cyclonus shrugged. Sixshot said, “How would I know?”

“The Stunticons probably wouldn’t mind,” Blitzwing piped up.

“You can ask them and get back to us,” Ultra Magus said. “In the meantime, how about you let Omega Supreme visit the Constructicons while they’re working?”

“I suppose that would be all right,” Starscream said warily. “Now, as for your spies…” He folded his arms and looked thoughtful. “They’re so annoying I’d almost give them back for free, but…”

“Ha,” said Blitzwing. “Starscream, you’ve turned being annoying into an art form.”

“See what I mean?” Starscream said. “Anyway, what we need right now is high-quality materials for the ship we’re building. So I’ll give your spies back, along with a list of things you Autobots can procure for us. Deal?”

“Let’s see the list first,” Arcee said, holding out her hand. “To make sure it’s not ridiculously unreasonable.” Cyclonus obliged, pulling it up on his datapad and handing it over. The Autobots looked it over and decided that while it would be a fair bit of work, it wasn’t a bad trade to get the triple-changers back.

“Finally,” Blitzwing said when Cyclonus took off his and Astrotrain’s cuffs and waved them away. He grabbed Astrotrain’s hand and they hurried over to the Autobots. Sixshot went to the shuttle to fetch Octane.

“How are you two?” Optimus asked. “Did they mistreat you after they found out you were on an infiltration mission?”

“No,” Astrotrain said. “Starscream just locked us in our room.”

“Did they mistreat you at all?” Jazz asked.

“Not… not really.” Astrotrain wasn’t sure exactly how much to go into, but the Autobots would probably want a debriefing on the mission later anyway.

Sixshot pulled Octane out of the shuttle, uncuffed him, and gave him a shove. “Get going.”

Octane happily obliged, running to Sandstorm. Sandstorm was running to him and they met halfway. Octane explained later that they both intended to dip the other in a kiss, but since they both tried to do it at the same time they just ended up on the ground in a tangled heap, laughing.

“Those two are an embarrassment,” Sixshot said with disgust. “Can we go now?”

“Yes, ummm…” Starscream addressed Skyfire. “When might I expect you on Chaar?”

“For you, I’ll be there by tomorrow,” Skyfire replied with a smile.

Starscream sputtered, “Good,” and scurried off into the shuttle.

“Bye, you guys!” Thrust called, waving to the triple-changers. “You’re welcome to come join a game anytime!”

“Maybe once we have a ship, we’ll come play here,” Dirge added. The coneheads followed Starscream on board, Sixshot and Cyclonus right behind, and a few minutes later the shuttle was blasting off.

Octane and Sandstorm finally managed to get their laughter under control and joined the Autobot group. Optimus turned to address the triple-changers. “I don’t know how to thank you,” he said. “I know this wasn’t your mission, but the outcome was better than we could have hoped.”

“Um. Well,” Astrotrain said, “Soundwave helped. This definitely wasn’t how we were expecting it to go either.”

“You did a remarkable job, regardless,” said Optimus. “You can debrief us when you’re up to it. I expect you’d all like to go back to Autobot city and get some well-deserved R&R.”

“That sounds excellent,” Blitzwing said, smiling up at Astrotrain, and Astrotrain had to wonder how in the universe he managed to be this lucky.

They flew back to Earth on Skyfire. Octane and Sandstorm didn’t stop chatting the entire way, and if the rest of the Autobots were listening, they wouldn’t need much of a debriefing later. Astrotrain and Blitzwing were content to sit quietly, hands clasped and leaning against each other. If anyone other than Jazz (who gave them a thumbs-up) noticed, they kept it to themselves.

There was quite a crowd waiting when they arrived, eager to see how negotiations had gone. Astrotrain was surprised by the reception, and found himself and the other triple-changers on the receiving end of way too many congratulations and hand-shakes. Seeing how overwhelmed they were, Optimus helped guide them away from the excited mob. Ultra Magnus and the others stayed to fill the crowd in on all the details.

Before heading to their quarters, Astrotrain, Blitzwing, and Octane decided there was one thing they wanted to do themselves—talk to Omega Supreme. They found him outside the city, alone as usual.

“What do you want?” Omega Supreme asked them when they approached.

“We’re back from our mission,” Octane said, “and we wanted to tell you about the Constructicons.”

“Constructicons betrayed Omega Supreme,” Omega Supreme said, looking away. “Minds reprogrammed forever.”

“But they’re not,” Blitzwing said. “Galvatron is dead. The reprogramming no longer works. They’re back to their old selves.”

“Omega Supreme has heard that before,” Omega Supreme said cautiously.

“It’s true,” Astrotrain said. “Megatron brainwashed them to be loyal to him—he doesn’t exist anymore. And they… they really want to see you. They want to apologize.”

“The Autobots talked to Starscream,” Octane added. “We have a cease-fire and we’re moving toward peace. You can go see them if you want.”

Omega Supreme stood, abruptly, and said, “Omega Supreme wants to see them very much.” The triple-changers had to scramble to get out of the way as Omega Supreme suddenly transformed and fired up his engines. Two minutes later he was gone.

Along with the cease-fire, communication channels were now open and clear between the Autobots and Decepticons. Astrotrain, Blitzwing, and Octane called the Decepticon base later that day to speak to the Constructicons. They talked to Scavenger, who was absolutely thrilled, and he told them that there had been a lot of crying and apologizing and several large group hugs. Omega Supreme was apparently now going to stay on Chaar until the ship was completed, then bring them back to Earth with him.

Skyfire departed the following day. He sent back several cheerful and excited reports on what he and Starscream were working on.

Astrotrain volunteered to fetch the Stunticons a couple of days later, and they were quite happy to aid the Autobots with their projects as long as they got to run off to demolition derbies every few days.

There were eventually talks of a stationing a Decepticon liaison at Autobot City, with Cyclonus being a possible candidate. Step by step, they were getting to peace.

And one night, as Astrotrain and Blitzwing were going to sleep wrapped in each other’s arms, Astrotrain realized something very important. He squeezed Blitzwing close, and when the other triple-changer gazed up at him happily but questioningly, Astrotrain looked him firmly in the optics and said, “I love you.”

**Author's Note:**

> So basically I was watching Headmasters and Blitzwing and Octane inexplicably showed up on Galvatron's side. Obviously the only explanation was that they were working undercover.


End file.
